Democrat Roy Cooper has won North Carolina’s US Senate race, defeating the candidate backed by President Donald Trump and giving Democrats a crucial pickup in their battle for control of the Senate.
Cooper, a former two-term governor of North Carolina, beat Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, according to media projections on Tuesday night. The result flips a seat that Republicans have held since 2015 and returns a Democrat to the Senate from North Carolina for the first time since Kay Hagan won in 2008.
The seat was open after Republican Senator Thom Tillis decided not to seek another term. Tillis had broken with Trump over cuts to Medicaid in the president’s signature tax and spending law, a split that helped prompt his retirement and left Republicans defending an open seat in a state Trump has carried in each of the last three presidential elections.
Cooper, 69, entered the race as one of the best-known Democrats in the state, having served as governor from 2017 to 2025. He campaigned heavily on the cost of living, arguing that voters were feeling squeezed by the high prices of food and energy, and he built a substantial polling lead over the course of the campaign, drawing strong support from independent voters.
Whatley, by contrast, had never held elective office. A former state and national Republican Party chairman, he was hand-picked by Trump to run for the seat and campaigned alongside the president in North Carolina. His campaign struggled to close the gap despite the president’s backing, and a leading Republican super PAC withdrew its spending from the state in October after months of poor polling for Whatley.
The result matters well beyond North Carolina. Republicans went into Tuesday’s elections holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control of the chamber. Flipping North Carolina was therefore an essential part of any Democratic path to a majority, even though a single pickup on its own does not decide control.
The race also offered an early read on the national mood. Exit polling suggested that half of voters nationwide saw the midterms as a chance to rebuke the president, and three-quarters said they were angry or dissatisfied with the direction of the country. Cooper’s margin, built on his long record in state politics, suggested that a familiar, locally rooted candidate could still break through in a state that has leaned Republican in recent presidential contests.
The outcome remains a projection rather than a certified result: the Associated Press called the race for Cooper on Tuesday evening, and the final official count will be certified by North Carolina’s election authorities in due course.
Note: the featured image is a file photo of Roy Cooper on board a train between Raleigh and Charlotte in November 2023, not a photograph from election night.
Sources: Reuters, “Democrat Roy Cooper flips Republican-held US Senate seat in North Carolina”, 4 November 2026, https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/democrat-roy-cooper-flips-republican-held-us-senate-seat-north-carolina-2026-11-04/ ; Associated Press race call as reported on 3 November 2026.
