By BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press
A pastor kicked off a recent campaign stop for Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee for Senate, with a prayer that asked God to bestow “integrity and honesty” upon the event and to right wrongs “hammered down on the conservative movement.”
The prayer was hardly unusual by North Carolina political standards. What was surprising was the man who delivered it. Pastor Daimon L. King is a registered sex offender, twice sentenced to prison for convictions involving children, according to state and court records.
The episode occurred with two months to go in a marquee Senate race that could help decide which party controls the chamber after the November elections. It risks undermining one of Whatley’s central campaign arguments — that his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Roy Cooper, is soft on crime. And it could feed into an advertising blitz by Democrats that has targeted the Republican candidate’s association with another convicted sex offender, a former GOP official.
King did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Whatley’s campaign declined to make him available for an interview. In a statement, campaign spokesman DJ Griffin said Whatley did not know King and the event “was NOT planned nor organized by the Whatley campaign nor did the campaign invite any of the guests.”
He emphasized that King had been “invited by the hosts,” which he identified as the Craven County Republican Party.
Officials with the county party could not be reached for comment.
Whatley led state and national GOP before entering Senate race
Whatley served as chairman of the North Carolina GOP from 2019 until Trump elevated him in 2024 to lead the Republican National Committee, a post he stepped down from to pursue the Senate seat at the president’s urging.
King’s prayer and Whatley’s association with the former GOP official Harvey L. West Jr., the other convicted sex offender, could prove particularly problematic as the Republican Senate candidate seeks to shore up support from hard-right conservatives, said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University who is not related to the former governor.
Anger in Trump’s base over the government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case pressured the president to sign legislation to release the records.
The documents, which detailed the deceased sex offender’s interactions with prominent figures in politics and business, pushed suspicions about powerful people and institutions that had circulated for years on the political right into a much broader public debate.
“The far right has not coalesced behind (Whatley) and these kinds of revelations will make that problem even greater,” Cooper said.
Pastor prayed at event featuring Whatley and a top Trump administration official
King, 60, is the leader of New Beginnings Celebration church in New Bern, a town near the North Carolina coast where the rally was held on Aug. 28. The pastor has taken on an increasingly visible role in Republican politics in recent years. He presents himself as a pro-Trump Black conservative and has served as a precinct chairman for the Craven County GOP. He has praised Trump and decried “fake news” in sermons uploaded to YouTube, delivering what he calls the “pure, uncut word of God.”
The event at the Craven County GOP headquarters featured Whatley and Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former daytime TV personality who is Trump’s administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
King can be seen in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, by Whatley’s campaign following the event. While Whatley and Oz took turns railing against fraud in the medical system, King positioned himself conspicuously in the background, nodded along in agreement and flashed a double thumbs-up.
King took to his church’s Facebook group the next day to offer a glowing assessment of the event.
“The atmosphere was charged with prayer and patriotism through the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of THE United States of America!!!” King wrote, adding that he and his church “fully support and are behind” Whatley.
Some 30 years ago, King was a marching band assistant at a high school outside Raleigh when he was charged with statutory rape and indecent liberties with a 15-year-old student, The News & Observer reported at the time. King, then 31, was convicted in 1998 and served nearly five years in prison before being paroled, according to state department of corrections records.
In 2010, he pleaded guilty to having sex with an underage female relative and served close to three years in prison, state records show.
King is required under North Carolina law to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Democrats have blasted Whatley over association with another convicted sex offender
Since March, Whatley has been dogged over his ties to West, who served as a congressional district committee chair in the state GOP when Whatley was chairman.
West, a former small-town police officer, was convicted of five counts of indecent liberties with a child and served six years in prison, corrections records show.
In 2012, news outlets reported on his conviction, forcing West to step down as an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention.
At the time, West denied he had committed the offenses and said that he had pleaded guilty to avoid the risk of spending decades behind bars, The Associated Press reported. He is no longer required to register as a sex offender.
West’s conviction resurfaced in the campaign earlier this year after Republican activists publicly aired concerns about his continued role in the party. The state GOP has since banned convicted sex offenders from holding party office.
Democrats, however, continue to hammer Whatley over the issue, spending more than $2.3 million on ads featuring a photo of Whatley and West posing together.
West says he warned GOP officials about King’s convictions
In an interview, West said he has always been transparent with party leaders about his past and noted that the main job he held in the state GOP was an elected position. He acknowledged, however, that he had been appointed to other roles when Whatley was chairman.
“I’m not going to say Michael Whatley put me up there,” West said. “But I wasn’t taken off either.”
West said he has sought to atone for his past and expressed frustration that his conviction had become a campaign issue.
“I wanted to serve as I followed my own redemption path. We have a right to be part of the political process,” West said. “For 20 years, I have been upfront and open about who I am and what happened to me. Not everyone does that.”
West also said he was familiar with King’s convictions and warned others in the party about associating with the pastor when he was considered for a GOP position. “I just said, ‘Hey, y’all might want to take a look at this,’” said West.