Exclusive: Lara Trump Considering Run for NC Senate, Says She Sees Herself as a Senator
Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of President Donald Trump and former co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), told Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow that she is considering a run for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC)’s seat just days after he announced his retirement from the Senate.
Speaking Tuesday on The Alex Marlow Show, which has steadily risen in popularity on the Apple Podcast charts — and recently passed California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s show, The Is Gavin Newsom — Lara blasted Tillis as “RINO-esque.”
The North Carolina senator declared on Sunday that he would not run for reelection, just a day after the president threatened to support a primary challenger against him for denouncing the Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill.”
“I know he wasn’t ever like a hardcore MAGA guy, but he’s been really just shooting blanks this whole first six months” of Trump’s second term, Marlow said, before highlighting Tillis’s opposition to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Ed Martin, Trump’s nominee to serve as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
While Tillis was eventually convinced to cast the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth’s nomination, he stood firm on Martin, leaving Martin without the support he needed to retain the position permanently.
“He is a terrific person. He wasn’t getting the support,” President Trump said of Martin in early May. “I’m very disappointed in that.”
According to Lara, wife of Eric Trump and host of the The Right View podcast and the Fox News show My View with Lara Trump, Tillis seems “very establishment-y.”
“A lot of people now who are representatives of the Republican Party in the House and the Senate, I think are very MAGA, you know, they’re America First patriots. They are supportive of what President Trump wants to do,” she told Marlow, before adding, “It kind of seems like he wants to be that guy who, you know, sides a lot of times with the Democrats — which doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“It’s very RINO-esque,” she continued, referring to Tillis as a “Republican In Name Only.”
Lara added that the senator’s opposition to Trump’s goals is getting “old and tired.”
Citing the fact that Trump won North Carolina all three times he ran for president, she argued that whoever represents those constituents in Congress should “be on board” with his nominations and other goals.
“But it kind of seems like he wants to go against the grain, just to say he’s going against the grain,” Lara said, before sharing her hope for an “America First, MAGA patriot” to take Tillis’s spot in November 2026.
Marlow then asked directly, “Is that going to be you?”
Lara then confirmed that she is “truly” considering a run, after receiving calls to do so from the White House.
“You know, it’s so funny, Alex, that this is the third time that I will have truly considered — and look, it’s fresh,” she explained. “This is in the past 48 hours. All this kind of came at me. I will say, I’ve fielded quite a few calls from a lot of people. Some of those calls have come from the White House. But this is the third time that I really consider this, and you know, at a certain point, you look at these things, and you kind of say to yourself, ‘All right, well, if this keeps coming up, maybe there’s something to it.’”
She went on to reflect on her previous considerations to run for Senate.
“I’ve definitely seen the way that one person can impact so many,” she said. “And I’ve seen that through, of course, my father-in-law as our president. And so I do think that it’s something that’s in my future. Is it in 2026? Maybe. You know, there’s a lot that has to happen in order for me to say yes. I definitely would like to seek out this Senate seat in North Carolina. But I certainly have considered it. I considered it in ’22 during those midterms. Ted Budd ultimately, of course, won that seat. Then I also considered it with Marco Rubio when he vacated his seat to become our Secretary of State. So, I’m a big, fat, maybe. I’m not going to give you a lot of info on this, because it’s all kind of fresh, so we’ll see what happens.”
“After an incredible amount of thought, contemplation, and encouragement from so many, I have decided to remove my name from consideration for the United States Senate,” Lara said in a December X post:
“I remain incredibly passionate about public service and look forward to serving our country again sometime in the future,” she added. “In the meantime, I wish Governor DeSantis the best of luck with this appointment.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) eventually tapped state Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) to fill Rubio’s vacant seat, Breitbart News reported.
Marlow asked, “But you do see yourself as a senator in the future?”
Lara reiterated, “I would love to serve in some capacity like that, yes,” before explaining that her life with two young children has made for difficult “timing” to launch a campaign.
“So, if we can work that out and it feels right, and the timing is right, then it’ll be a yes for me.”
Eric Trump shared similar thoughts on the struggles of raising a family while being in the political spotlight in a recent interview with the Financial Times, saying, “The real question is: ‘Do you want to drag other members of your family into it?’”
“Would I want my kids to live the same experience over the last decade that I’ve lived? You know, if the answer was yes, I think the political path would be an easy one, meaning, I think I could do it,” he added. “And by the way, I think other members of our family could do it too.”
Lara discussed her deep roots in North Carolina. She was born and raised in Wilmington and graduated from North Carolina State University.
“It’s my home state. All of my family, by the way, lives there — my parents, my brother, my cousins, aunts, uncles… all of them are still in North Carolina. So, when I say I’m going home, I’m going to North Carolina,” she told Marlow.
In an article Monday on a potential Lara Trump Senate run, Politico reported that the president has given her his support, and that RNC Chair Michael Whatley is also interested in the North Carolina seat, “but won’t make a play until he knows Lara’s decision.”
“The field is gonna be frozen,” a source close to the White House told Politico. “She has the right of first refusal.”
“I think people are really smart enough to not go in there,” another source said. “Everybody’s kind of just been like, ‘it’s Lara’s if she wants it,’ The ball is in Lara Trump’s court. It’s that simple.”
When Marlow asked about Whatley, Lara said she can “absolutely see” him running for Tillis’s seat as well.
“He did a great job with the RNC,” Marlow added, to which Lara concurred.
“I know, that’s the balance. You don’t want him out of the RNC, because we need him there,” she said of her former RNC co-chair. “I mean, it was the two of us who kind of took on the election integrity stuff for the ’24 campaign.”
She added that she has “a feeling” that the president will ask Whatley to stay at the RNC, but noted that he is also a North Carolina native who is well-liked by voters there.
The Alex Marlow Show, hosted by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, is a weekday podcast produced by Breitbart News and Salem Podcast Network. You can subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Rumble, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
