Former North Carolina governor Roy Cooper defeated Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, in the race for the US Senate in North Carolina, the Associated Press reported. Cooper will thus become the first Democrat to represent the state in the Senate in 10 years, or since 2008, and will succeed outgoing Republican Thom Tillis.
Cooper's victory marked the first Senate seat to turn blue in this year's midterm elections. His "Make Stuff Cost Less" campaign focused on reducing the costs of food, energy and housing, and he highlighted his record of expanding Medicaid and teacher pay while governor. Whatley and Republicans unsuccessfully tried to link Cooper with violent crime, particularly in the city of Charlotte, while pressing conservative fears about transgender athletes and immigration.
Cooper has been present in North Carolina politics for a generation, first as state attorney general, and then for two terms as governor. He is a politically moderate Democrat who has long been the most popular political figure in the state. He raised about three times more money than Whatley and never trailed in polls against an opponent more connected to national politics than to North Carolina issues.
The Senate Leadership Fund, which directs money from fundraising by Republican Senate leader John Thune to US Senate campaigns, wrote off Whatley and redirected its spending to the race in Kansas. The flip of the seat to Democratic hands happened as Republicans running for Congress faced national headwinds. The Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature redrew the state's congressional maps in a national effort by Donald Trump for mid-decade redistricting, but Republicans still flipped one congressional seat in western North Carolina.
US congressman Chuck Edwards announced in August that he would not run for re-election following a recommendation for censure by the House Ethics Committee, after an investigation into inappropriate behaviour towards two women from congressional staff. Jamie Ager, a fifth-generation farmer whose farm was damaged in Hurricane Helene in 2024, ran a campaign that highlighted the failures of federal aid and used Edwards' withdrawal and public anger against the Trump administration.
Cooper's victory brings his party one term closer to retaking control of the chamber they lost two years ago, when Donald Trump returned to the White House. Democrats recorded victories elsewhere earlier that night, and the AP called the Senate race in Georgia for incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff, who easily won a second term in a state that voted for Trump in 2024. In New Hampshire, Democrat Chris Pappas will succeed outgoing senator Jeanne Shaheen, according to the AP, defying Republican hopes for an upset in a state known for its independent streak. Pappas is the first openly gay man elected to the US Senate.
In Florida, the AP predicts that incumbent senator Ashley Moody defeated Democrat Angie Nixon. Moody, who was appointed to the Senate last year after Marco Rubio became Trump's secretary of state, beat Nixon by about three percentage points with 97% of ballots counted. Moody will serve the remainder of the six-year term that Rubio won in 2022, when he was elected with a margin of 17 percentage points.
Democrats were also re-elected in several blue states, including Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Illinois, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Colorado and New Mexico, according to the AP. The GOP meanwhile held Senate seats in deeply red West Virginia, Wyoming and Kentucky. Republicans currently hold 53 seats in the Senate, and for Democrats to regain control, they must win at least three additional seats from Republicans.
Cooper's victory in North Carolina is the first Democratic flip in the elections, and he will succeed Republican senator Thom Tillis, who decided to retire after a feud with Trump. Control of the Senate provides a strong lever against Trump for the final two years of his presidency. Democrats could block the president's laws and issue subpoenas to investigate his administration, and they could also reject his nominees for the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court.
At the start of his presidency, it seemed unlikely that the opposition party would have a good chance of regaining a majority in the midterm elections. Trump's approval ratings have fallen sharply since his inauguration, driven by dissatisfaction with his management of the economy and key costs of living. His decision to attack Iran also proved unpopular among voters, as did his hardline enforcement of immigration law.
For a Senate flip, Democrats initially cited races in Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Alaska as their best chances. As sentiment towards Trump worsened, the party believed their candidates had a chance of winning in Texas, Kansas, Iowa and South Carolina. Trump campaigned in the final weeks before the election in places like Kansas, South Carolina and Texas.
Republicans have their own targets, specifically seats held by Democrats in states that went to Trump two years ago or that Harris won by a narrow margin. That group included Minnesota, New Hampshire, Michigan and Georgia, although Republican candidates had already lost in two of those races. A New York Times and Siena College poll published on Sunday showed that Democrats lead in five key states covered by the poll, and are statistically tied in a sixth.
Last week, the New York Times reported that the campaign of Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola had worked with Democratic operatives to recruit a candidate with a name almost identical to her opponent, incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan. The state governor ordered a criminal investigation into the claim, while the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to block the certification of the election if Sullivan lost, but a federal judge recently dismissed it.
