LAS VEGAS — North Carolina Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley is emphasizing that he stands firmly with Israel as he seeks to attract votes from the state’s Jewish community.

North Carolina Jewish Democrats have found themselves increasingly alienated from their state party in recent years, as the party resisted efforts to establish a Jewish caucus and approved various anti-Israel measures. But with a formidable and more moderate nominee in former Gov. Roy Cooper at the top of the ticket, it remains to be seen how many Jewish votes will be up for grabs in November.

“The Jewish people matter [and] our relationship with Israel matters,” Whatley told Jewish Insider during the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit in Las Vegas. “Israel has been and will be our No. 1 ally in the Middle East and they need to be and we need to make absolutely sure that we have a senator who is going to fight for that relationship.”

Beyond just the Jewish community, during the RJC event, Whatley described support for Israel as a top-priority issue for North Carolina voters. He expressed unequivocal support for continued U.S. military aid to Israel.

Whatley has sought to cast Cooper as an extremist unfriendly to the Jewish community, highlighting a Washington Free Beacon report that the governor had hosted an imam with extremist ties at a 2018 Iftar dinner at the governor’s mansion and criticizing him for not dispatching state police to stop university campus protests against the war in Gaza or speaking out against the state party’s anti-Israel resolutions.

“I think that there’s a track record that he has that Jewish voters should take a look at and understand there’s a very clear distinction,” he continued.

Whatley also noted that he spent a summer living in Israel, interning at an archeological site in Caesarea while he was a graduate student at Wake Forest University. He called Israel “truly remarkable” and a “fantastic country” with “fantastic people.”

He also noted that he visited Israel as Republican National Committee chairman following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, meeting with senior Israeli leaders and visiting sites of the Hamas assault.

Despite its political unpopularity, Whatley expressed support for the war in Iran, emphasizing the need to block Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and arguing that it is “long past time for presidents to quit kicking this can down the road. When President Trump made the call that Iran was too close to a nuclear weapon and went in — I think that is where we need to be.”

In spite of skepticism from many political observers about his chances, and Cooper leading in the polls, Whatley expressed confidence that he is going to win the race.

“We feel very good about where the polls are right now,” Whatley said. “I’m down four points going into Labor Day. That is absolutely within striking distance.”

He said his campaign just began to run TV ads in the past few weeks, which he suggested would help him close the gap.

“The fact is that the people of North Carolina are not going to vote for the worst governor in the history of North Carolina,” Whatley insisted, pointing to Cooper’s record on criminal justice, immigration, transgender issues and the economy. “We are prosecuting this case from one end of the state to the other.”

Whatley said he entered the race after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) announced his retirement at the urging of people in the state as well as President Donald Trump.

“Fundamentally, [I’m running] because I want to represent this state. I want to fight for the people of North Carolina,” Whatley said. “I want to make sure that I’m representing every family and every community across the state and to make sure that we have a conservative champion in the Senate.”