Former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper secured a U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, flipping a Republican-held position in a state Donald Trump carried three times.
The Associated Press projected Cooper, a Democrat, defeated former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley. With 50% of ballots counted, Cooper led with 66.8% of the vote compared to Whatley’s 31.6%.
Cooper will succeed retiring two-term Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who chose not to seek reelection after Trump threatened to support a primary challenger against him.
The victory marks the first Senate seat to change parties in the 2026 midterm elections, moving Democrats one seat closer to the four net pickups required to reclaim a majority in the chamber. North Carolina also became the first state that supported Trump in the 2024 presidential race to elect a Democrat to the Senate in this cycle.
Cooper centered his campaign on kitchen-table economic issues, running under the slogan “Make Stuff Cost Less.” Throughout the race, he pledged to reduce expenses for groceries, healthcare, energy, child care, and housing.
Whatley campaigned as a close ally of Trump, supporting the administration’s foreign policy and the ongoing military conflict with Iran, which he framed as a necessary measure to prevent the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Cooper served two terms as governor from 2017 to 2025, winning statewide in both 2016 and 2020 despite Trump carrying North Carolina in those same presidential elections. Prior to his tenure as governor, Cooper served four terms as state attorney general and spent more than a decade in the state legislature.
Whatley previously led the North Carolina Republican Party before serving approximately 18 months as chairman of the RNC, a position he assumed in 2024 with Trump’s endorsement. The Senate race represented his first bid for public office.
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