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'Stop the pain at the pump': Roy Cooper flips North Carolina Senate seat for Democrats
Former Gov. Roy Cooper defeated Republican Michael Whatley to win North Carolina's open Senate seat, the first Democratic Senate victory in the state since 2008, and promised to work to end the Iran war and bring down gas prices.
Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper won the state's open U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, defeating Republican Michael Whatley and handing Democrats one of the pickups that carried them to a Senate majority. NBC News projected the race at 8:23 p.m. ET, less than an hour after polls closed.
With most votes counted, Cooper led Whatley by about 58.7% to 39.2%, according to unofficial results reported by WRAL; the results will not be certified until later this month. The seat opened up when two-term Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who had grown increasingly critical of President Donald Trump, chose not to seek reelection. Cooper is the first North Carolina Democrat to win a Senate race since 2008, in a state Trump carried in 2024.
"Tomorrow, the work of governing begins"
Addressing supporters in Raleigh, Cooper made clear he intended to move quickly. "We are just getting started. Tomorrow, the work of governing begins," he said.
He said he was "not going to Washington to be something" but "to do something," and pledged to protect Medicaid expansion. He also took aim at the Iran war, which drove fuel prices up throughout the campaign: "We have to work to end this war and stop the pain at the pump."
A race that slipped away from the GOP
Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman who had never run for office, entered the race at Trump's urging, and both Trump and Vice President JD Vance rallied for him in the final stretch. He conceded in Gastonia, telling supporters he had called Cooper and would "never stop fighting for North Carolina."
Cooper, a two-term governor and former state attorney general who has never lost an election, focused almost entirely on the cost of living, blaming tariffs and the Iran war for high prices. He entered October with $12.5 million in the bank against Whatley's $916,000. The Senate Leadership Fund, which had pledged $71 million to help Whatley, later canceled its North Carolina spending and shifted the money to Kansas, and Whatley's campaign suspended its TV ads in October.
Even Trump saw it coming. At an October rally, he told the crowd that Cooper was "going to become your senator." Cooper will be sworn in when the new Congress convenes in January.
Videos: NBC News, AP via social media. Photo: Wikimedia Commons (file)
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