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Whatley's Energy Holdings Draw Scrutiny in North Carolina Senate Race
ReWhatley's Energy Holdings Draw Scrutiny in North Carolina Senate Race
Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley and his family hold up to $690,000 in energy investments tied to data center growth, according to federal disclosures, raising conflict-of-interest questions as the North Carolina race heats up.
Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in North Carolina and former chair of the Republican National Committee, and his family hold between $246,000 and $690,000 in energy investments with companies that are fueling data center growth in the state, according to his federal financial disclosure. The holdings have drawn attention to whether Whatley could benefit financially from his support of data center expansion, an issue that has sparked national debate over community zoning, energy consumption, and state growth.
Most of the reported investments are concentrated in four companies. Whatley and his family hold between $149,000 and $410,000 in Duke Energy, between $1,000 and $15,000 in Arista Networks, between $80,000 and $200,000 in Dominion Energy, and between $16,000 and $65,000 in GE Vernova. While Duke Energy and GE Vernova do not directly build data centers, they provide services and products that data centers rely on. Duke is a major utility provider in North Carolina, and GE Vernova manufactures on-site gas turbines used by data center facilities operated by companies such as Amazon and Microsoft.
In addition to those investments, Whatley reported $361,000 in income from CAPCVentures LLC, a Washington, D.C., firm, for consulting services in 2025. That firm lists GE Vernova as a client, along with Centrus Energy and the Renewable Fuels Association. Earlier coverage put his pay from the same firm at about $755,000 between 2022 and 2025.
When asked about his holdings and whether they represent a potential conflict of interest, Whatley's campaign pointed to his support for restrictions on stock trading by members of Congress. «Whatley supports the Stop Insider Trading Act and urges the U.S. Senate to pass the commonsense legislation, and supports commonsense reforms requiring elected officials to place their assets in qualified blind trusts, ensuring they have no control over how those assets are invested,» DJ Griffin, a campaign spokesperson, said in a statement.
The campaign also said Whatley would support letting local communities decide for themselves what kinds of data center projects to accept and which to reject. «Michael Whatley's standard is simple: data centers pay their own way, families pay nothing and communities decide,» Griffin continued. «That means Big Tech builds or buys every megawatt it needs and covers every dime of the grid upgrades to deliver it, with zero costs shifted onto residential ratepayers. It means no special subsidies and no sweetheart deals cut over the heads of taxpayers.»
Griffin added that «the people of North Carolina's counties and towns, not bureaucrats in Raleigh or Washington, decide what gets built in their communities. North Carolina should win the AI economy, and it should win it on terms that protect the families who live here.»
Whatley's campaign also turned attention to his Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, the former governor of North Carolina. «Roy Cooper is the only candidate in this race who has used the powers of his elected office to recruit data centers to NC and to have them subsidized by NC Taxpayers,» Griffin said, noting that Cooper has also supported restrictions on congressional stock trading.
However, the bulk of North Carolina's tax breaks for data centers already existed by the time Cooper became governor in 2017. In 2016, the state implemented statute G.S.105-164.13, under which lawmakers expanded data center tax exemptions on sales, servers, storage, and networking for companies investing at least $75 million in projects over five years. The state did approve several major grants to companies like Apple and Corvid Technologies under Cooper's watch through Job Development Investment Grants, or JDIGs, aimed at furthering job development. Among the more high-profile JDIGs, Apple entered into an $845 million grant over 39 years alongside another $112.4 million for an industrial development fund to build out rural infrastructure. The agreement is contingent on Apple creating a certain number of jobs, but the company has yet to meet the JDIG's projected goals since its implementation.
Cooper's campaign criticized Whatley for what they described as insufficient sensitivity to local resistance to data center expansion. «Longtime utility company lobbyist Michael Whatley believes people's concerns about data centers are fake as he continues to shill for his billionaire buddies in the utility industry instead of standing up against rate hikes that are crushing hardworking families,» a spokesperson for the Cooper campaign said.
Cooper has taken a more critical approach to data center expansion, arguing that it forces local communities into higher utility bills. Like many Democrats on the topic, he has framed his stance in the broader context of affordability policies. «[Cooper] believes local communities must have the final say on new projects coming to their area, which includes local moratoriums, and data centers must pay for all of the energy they use without passing on any of their costs to consumers,» his campaign said.
Having cleared their respective primaries, Cooper and Whatley will face off in North Carolina's general election on Nov. 3.
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