Former Gov. Roy Cooper wins North Carolina Senate race, a gain for Democrats

NBC News projects that Cooper has defeated former RNC Chairman Michael Whatley in the contest to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis.

by · 5 NBCDFW

Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has defeated former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley in the contest for North Carolina’s open Senate seat, NBC News projects.

  • North Carolina – U.S. Senate

    99% expected vote in

    Source: NBC News Decision Desk

    Projected Winner

    • Roy Cooper

      58.7%

      2,462,440

    • Michael Whatley

      39.1%

      1,640,368

    • Shannon Bray

      1.3%

      55,718

    • Michael Dublin

      0.9%

      36,426

Cooper’s victory secures a crucial flip for Democrats as the party tries to take control of the Senate. The party must gain a net of four seats to clinch a majority. The result also marks the first time a Democrat has won a Senate seat in North Carolina since 2008.

Cooper will succeed retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, who grew increasingly critical of President Donald Trump during his second term and chose not to seek re-election.

The race was initially expected to be one of the most hotly contested across the Senate landscape. But in the closing weeks of the campaign, a top Republican super PAC canceled its ad spending in the race to focus more on protecting seats in more conservative territory as Cooper built a solid lead in the polls.

The abandonment of North Carolina as a front-line battleground resulted from several factors. First, Cooper, a popular former two-term governor, enjoyed high name recognition while Republicans had few attacks to lob his way. A prized recruit for national Democrats, Cooper also avoided a contentious primary and focused his campaign almost entirely on the cost of living, a top voter concern.

Whatley, who had previously led the state party and earned national recognition as RNC chairman during the 2024 election, had not run for elected office before. Trump, who urged him to launch a bid for the seat, and Vice President JD Vance rallied on several occasions with Whatley down the final stretch of the race in an effort to give him a boost.

But even Trump signaled in the closing weeks that Cooper was likely to win. “He’s going to become your senator,” Trump said of Cooper at an October rally in the state. “And it’s crazy.”

As voters soured on the economy and the Iran war, Whatley could not escape or distance himself from an increasingly unpopular president in the key battleground state.

This was also the first midterm Senate race to take place in North Carolina with Trump in power, an environment that would be tougher for Republicans given traditional backlashes to the party that controls the White House. The state did not hold a Senate contest in 2018, Trump’s last midterm