RALEIGH, N.C. — Former Gov. Roy Cooper captured the state’s open seat in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday night, defeating Republican Michael Whatley and handing Democrats a pickup in a chamber where they need a net gain of four seats for control.
Whatley conceded the race Tuesday night. Cooper becomes the first Democrat North Carolina has sent to the Senate since 2008, and he will take the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who chose not to run again.
Tillis made that decision in 2025 after President Donald Trump threatened to back a primary opponent over Tillis’s refusal to support the president’s tax and spending package. Trump then encouraged Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman and onetime state party leader, to enter the race. It was Whatley’s first campaign for public office.
Cooper, who served two terms as governor from 2017 to early 2025, avoided a contested primary and built his campaign almost entirely around household costs, billing his stops across the state as a tour about making everyday items cheaper. Whatley leaned on crime and immigration and attacked Cooper over a pandemic-era settlement that let some inmates leave crowded state prisons early.
The contest was once forecast to rank among the most expensive and closely fought in the country. Whatley never led in public polling, though, and Cooper’s advantage grew through the fall. Cooper and national Democratic groups heavily outspent the Republican side, and weeks before Election Day national GOP groups pulled their North Carolina television ads and shifted the money to races in more Republican-leaning states such as Kansas.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance still held several rallies with Whatley in the closing weeks.
This was also the first North Carolina Senate race held in a midterm year with Trump in the White House, since the state had no Senate contest in 2018.
Results are unofficial until certified by the State Board of Elections.
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