As confirmed by CBS, the BBC’s trusted news partner, former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has been projected to claim a decisive victory in the state’s high-stakes 2026 U.S. Senate race, wresting a seat away from Republican control that was previously occupied by retiring incumbent Thom Tillis. Cooper’s projected win over his Republican rival Michael Whatley, the ex-chairman of the Republican National Committee hand-picked by former and sitting President Donald Trump, marks the first time North Carolina has sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 2008, delivering a massive boost to Democratic efforts to seize majority control of Congress from the GOP in this cycle’s midterm elections. The path to this competitive opening began last year, when Tillis announced he would forgo a bid for a third six-year Senate term, after he broke ranks with his party and voted against Trump’s signature domestic legislative package, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Following that vote, Trump publicly lambasted Tillis, labeling him a “talker and complainer” and vowing to back primary challengers against him if he sought re-election, a rift that ultimately pushed the long-serving senator into retirement. A 69-year-old public servant with deep roots in North Carolina politics, Cooper built his campaign around pocketbook priorities that resonated strongly with state voters: pledges to reduce sky-high costs for groceries, healthcare, home energy and utility bills, childcare, and residential housing, framing his candidacy as a practical, middle-class focused alternative to extreme partisan gridlock. On the opposing side, Whatley ran on a platform of full alignment with Trump’s national agenda, promising to advance strict crackdowns on undocumented immigration and roll back a suite of policies enacted by Democratic-led federal and state administrations in recent years. With Cooper’s win, North Carolina’s Senate delegation will now feature one member from each major party, sitting alongside incumbent Republican Senator Ted Budd, who began his first six-year Senate term in 2023. The closely watched result adds a critical data point to the unfolding 2026 midterm election cycle, where control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate hang in the balance as voters cast ballots to shape the trajectory of national policy for the final two years of Trump’s presidential term.
Democrat Roy Cooper flips key North Carolina Senate seat from Republicans
