Michael Whatley holds Duke Energy stock as the utility seeks a rate hike
The Republican Senate nominee previously worked for a lobbying group that represents oil and utility interests.
Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee for the open Senate seat of retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, has financial ties to Duke Energy, recent reporting shows. The energy company is currently seeking a rate increase as the cost of living continues to increase for North Carolina families.
Whatley and his wife own between $163,000 and $445,000 in Duke Energy stock, according to a financial disclosure filed in November 2025.
Whatley’s campaign website includes what it calls “Michael’s Plan for North Carolina.” The section titled “America First Economy” says in its entirety: “America’s economic strength depends on reliable, affordable energy and reining in Washington’s reckless spending. By practicing fiscal responsibility and unleashing American energy, we can empower American workers, create good-paying jobs, achieve energy independence, and build lasting prosperity for every American.”
A report by the website Carolina Public Press on campaign spending by Duke Energy in North Carolina notes that, before becoming chair of the North Carolina Republican Party in 2019, Whatley was executive vice president of Consumer Energy Alliance, a lobbying group that represents oil, natural gas and utility interests. The group is operated by HBW Resources, a lobbying firm that Whatley co-founded in 2007. Duke Energy is listed among CEA’s clients.
While Whatley was vice president of CEA, the group lobbied in favor of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 600-mile natural gas pipeline that would have carried gas from West Virginia to North Carolina, and for allowing Duke to recover clean-up costs from customers following a 2014 coal ash spill into the Dan River.
Duke Energy is currently seeking an additional rate increase, which would go into effect in two stages on Jan. 1, 2027, and Jan. 1, 2028. Duke filed an application in November 2025 with the North Carolina Utilities Commission to increase what customers pay by 18%, but after objections from the public and Attorney General Jeff Jackson and hearings with state regulators, Duke lowered the proposal to 11.6%.
In July, Duke and the North Carolina Public Staff reached a proposed settlement would raise residential rates by about 9.5% over two years. The settlement needs to be approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission in order to go into effect. Jackson said he wouldn’t join the settlement and that a 9.5% increase is too high.
The proposed raise comes as North Carolina families are already stretching their wallets thin to pay their electric bills. Average monthly residential electric bills have increased about 22% between 2020 and 2025, according to a February report from the North Carolina Energy Policy Task Force. The report shows that demand for energy rose 7% between 2005 and 2024. It says Duke Energy projects that demand could grow between 16% and 60% over the next 15 years.
Some of the projected increase in demand for electricity will come from data centers, the report notes: Data centers account for only 30% of the projects but 80% of the projected electricity demand among economic development projects Duke Energy is tracking in its North and South Carolina service areas.
Whatley’s website doesn’t include any specific details on how he would help families with their increasingly expensive electric bills or how he would address the demand for data centers.
When asked at an April news conference what Congress and state leaders can do to encourage AI innovation, Whatley said: “I think what you need to do is have a regulatory framework that’s going to allow for that. We certainly need to make sure from an infrastructure standpoint that they’re going to have the energy, that they’re going to have the permitting capacity, that they’re going to have the workforce to be able to actually build the facilities that are being done with it, and you need to also have a regulatory framework.”
