Did Michael Whatley appoint a sex offender to party roles while GOP chair?

U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley faces questions about whether he elevated a convicted sex offender to positions within the North Carolina Republican Party during his tenure as party chairman.

Whatley is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, who declined to seek reelection following a policy disagreement with President Donald Trump. Whatley is up against former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic nominee, as well as Green Party nominee Brian McGinnis and Libertarian Shannon Bray.

The race is expected to be one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate contests in the nation as Republicans try to maintain their majority. Democrats can take control of the chamber if they defend their incumbents and flip three GOP-held seats. Political analysts say North Carolina represents one of Democrats’ best opportunities to pick up a seat. 

Just days after Whatley won the GOP nomination, an Asheville, North Carolina-based media outlet reported that Whatley appointed a convicted sex offender to state party leadership positions. Whatley was the state party chairman from June 2019 to March 2024 before becoming chairman of the Republican National Convention. 

In recent weeks, the North Carolina Democratic Party has issued statements attacking Whatley over the issue. Whatley’s campaign declined PolitiFact’s requests for comment. 

Here’s what we’ve found.

The person in question: Harvey L. West Jr., 55, pleaded guilty in 2000 to five counts of taking indecent liberties with a child, including with a person who was younger than 16. He was released from state custody in 2006 and required to register as a sex offender. West said in 2012 that he didn’t commit the crimes and that he pleaded guilty to avoid risking decades behind bars, the Associated Press reported.

West’s criminal history and involvement with the North Carolina Republican Party came under scrutiny in 2012 because Republicans in the state’s 3rd Congressional District nominated him as an alternate delegate to the 2012 Republican National Convention in Florida. West resigned from the delegate position that March after The News & Observer newspaper reported his criminal history, the AP reported. 

West’s involvement with the North Carolina Republican Party came under scrutiny again this year following a March 11 article by the Asheville Watchdog, a nonprofit news organization based in Buncombe County. The Watchdog reported that Whatley appointed West to two committees, the state party’s 1st Congressional District committee and its Plan of Organization committee.

West served as chairman of the 1st Congressional District committee from 2019 until earlier this month. District committees are volunteer groups that serve regions outlined by North Carolina’s congressional map. District committees help the state and county party groups plan events, recruit volunteers and organize get-out-the-vote efforts.

West resigned from the 1st Congressional District committee in mid-March, just days after the Asheville Watchdog article was published. West told PolitiFact Thursday that he resigned because he had grown tired of being used "as a weapon against somebody else."

"I got tired of always being the focus of the negativity," West said in a phone interview.

West also served as a member of the state GOP's Plan of Organization Committee for several years — including 2020 and 2024, when Whatley was state GOP chairman. The committee is responsible for establishing party rules and interpreting them when questions arise. 

Chairman of the 1st Congressional District Committee: West and Matt Mercer, a spokesman for the state GOP, disputed the Watchdog’s reporting claim that Whatley appointed West to the 1st Congressional District committee. 

PolitiFact shared West and Mercer’s objection with Asheville Watchdog reporter Tom Fiedler, who wrote the outlet’s article. Fielder said neither West nor the state GOP contacted him. Fiedler acknowledged that it "isn’t correct" to say Whatley appointed West as the district committee’s chairman. However, Fiedler stood by his reporting that Whatley "supported" West in the position. 

In 2019, West was the 1st Congressional District committee vice chairman. Then, after the chair of the committee resigned, the district’s executive committee elected West to fill the role as chairman, Mercer said. 

Since 2020, committee members themselves re-elected West to the position. And West said his criminal history had been disclosed. 

"I've never hidden the fact that I have a past," West said in a telephone interview Thursday. "I was elected (by) people being upfront and honest and saying, ‘Hey, this happened. I did six years in prison.’"

West said Whatley wasn’t happy about West’s involvement in the party: "Whatley did not like me," West said.

West added: "When I first became the district chair, Whatley was not supportive of that. He didn't want me there. But, as time went on and I worked and I showed my worth — and I was able to be successful and bring that district together and organize a newer structure — evidently, he saw my worth and saw my intentions and saw my heart. So, he utilized my skills and talents where they best fit. You don't have to like a person to see their worth and their value, as long as they get the job done."

Asked how West knew Whatley didn’t like him, West said: "I'm not going to air our dirty laundry." West said that he had supported one of Whatley’s opponents in the race for party chairman that year.

Member of the Plan of Organization Committee: West told PolitiFact that he has been appointed to the party’s Plan of Organization Committee at least 10 times dating back to 2011.

Some years, such as 2018 and 2019, West said his district committee appointed him to the role. Other years, West said, the state party’s chairman appointed him. West said that was the case from 2013 to 2017 — when Robin Hayes, Claude Pope and Hassan Harnett served as chairmen. It was also the case in 2021 and 2024 — when Whatley appointed West to the Plan of Organization Committee, West said. 

When PolitiFact asked the state GOP and Whatley’s campaign about West’s comments, the campaign didn’t provide a comment. Mercer, the state GOP spokesman, meanwhile, didn’t dispute West’s account. 

Once a person is selected for a committee, they typically stay on unless they specifically ask to step down, Mercer said. 

"West had been asked to serve on the Plan of Organization Committee prior to Michael Whatley’s election as Chairman," Mercer said, adding that West "continued serving as he did prior to 2019."

West said his years of volunteer work for the party qualified him to serve on the Plan of Organization committee. His criminal history shouldn’t be a factor, he said. "It’s about who is best for the job," West said. 

Hayes agreed. The former state party chairman — who served from 2011 to 2013 and again from 2016 to 2019 — confirmed that he appointed West to the Plan of Organization committee. Hayes said he has known West for a long time. 

"He did a great job. He was always very conscientious," Hayes said.

Pope told PolitiFact he couldn’t recall appointing West to the Plan of Organization committee. But as chairperson from 2013 to 2015, he said, he was aware of West’s criminal record.

West "has had that cloud hanging over him for years, and there's always been a group of people that have tried to pull it back out, and make something of it, whatever agenda they've got," Pope said. "So I'm not surprised that it's come out, but it's such old news that I don't know if it's even relevant anymore."

Harnett didn’t respond to requests for comment. 

West speaks to scrutiny: West said he has enjoyed working with the North Carolina Republican Party because he’s conservative and wants to help the party. He told PolitiFact that he’s grateful that the state party granted him opportunities, despite his past.

"I worked hard," West said. "I was open, I was honest, and evidently, people believed in me and they trusted me, and they allowed me to serve." 

West said he helped Frederick Douglass Foundation open its first chapter in North Carolina in 2017 representing Black Republicans and helped with judicial race fundraising in 2020. That year, Republicans won each of the state’s three state Supreme Court races. 

West said state GOP members shouldn’t be condemned for giving him opportunities. 

"People make mistakes, they serve their time, and they come back," West said. "Isn’t that the whole point of rehabilitation, so they can go back into the community and serve?"

GOP takes aim at Cooper: Amid questions about West’s involvement in the North Carolina Republican Party, the state GOP on Monday accused Cooper of "hanging out" with a convicted sex offender named Chad Turner.

Turner, formerly Chad Sevearance, is a registered sex offender in North Carolina. Turner was 20 when he was accused in 1998 of committing a lewd act with a 15-year-old in South Carolina — a charge he was convicted of in 2000. Today, he is president and chief executive of the Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce in Charlotte, according to the group’s website.

The state Republican Party on Monday issued a press release with the headline: "Did Roy Cooper promote a convicted child sex offender?" In the body of the email, the state GOP wrote "yes" and included a photograph of Cooper standing next to a man who appears to be Turner at the Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce annual meeting and awards gala in 2018. 

A Cooper campaign spokesperson told WRAL that the state GOP is making a false equivalency and criticized as "disgusting" Republicans’ promotion of West. Cooper’s attendance at the 2018 event was reported by right-leaning media outlets shortly after it happened.

Turner didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Cooper isn’t the only Democrat to come under fire for attending an event with Turner. In the 2024 race for North Carolina attorney general, Republican Dan Bishop aired a campaign ad that said Democrat Jeff Jackson "embraced" Turner. Jackson told PolitiFact in 2024 he didn’t know about Turner’s record when he attended the 2022 event. 

Bishop and other Republicans have noted that Turner’s criminal record has been reported by various media outlets over the years. The Charlotte Observer, for instance, reported in 2016 that Turner stepped down from his role as president of Charlotte’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce — which later became the Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce — amid scrutiny from conservative political groups. He rejoined the group in 2020, the Observer reported.