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Roy Cooper, the former Democratic governor of North Carolina, won his party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate seat up for election this fall, setting up a matchup against Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee chosen Tuesday. The two primaries narrowed the field for the open seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced last June he would not seek a third term, and the nominations came amid early-season attention on potential shifts in control of the Senate.
Cooper and Whatley each won over crowded fields, with Democrats and Republicans looking to consolidate support inside their parties before the fall campaign. Tillis’s retirement opened the race, and the two candidates announced their campaigns weeks later, according to the timeline of the race. North Carolina, which has voted for Donald Trump for president while still holding the governor’s office for Democrats, is one of the states beginning the midterm election cycle this year.
What political experts described as high stakes for Congress helped frame the importance of North Carolina’s contest. Republicans currently hold the majority in the Senate, and the seat is widely seen as relevant to whether Democrats can gain the net seats needed to take control of the chamber. The AP reported that political experts expect a “typhoon of outside money,” with the race possibly becoming the most expensive Senate campaign in U.S. history and perhaps reaching $1 billion.
Within the Democratic campaign, Cooper’s profile as a two-term governor was central to the argument that he is the party’s best shot at victory in a state that has been competitive at the federal level. The reporting described Cooper as a candidate with long-running success in state politics and pointed to Democrats’ view that regaining the Senate majority likely includes winning in North Carolina as well as races in other states.
On the Republican side, Whatley’s win came after President Donald Trump endorsed him, the AP reported, following Lara Trump’s decision to decline to run. Whatley, identified as a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, positioned himself as continuing Trump’s agenda, including claims that the agenda has cut taxes and spending and strengthened U.S. military capabilities.
At two nomination events Tuesday night, Whatley told supporters that “His leadership has changed our country, and I am proud to stand with him in the fight to secure our border, to strengthen our economy and put America first,” according to the AP report. Cooper, speaking in Raleigh, focused his remarks on economic pressure facing North Carolina residents, saying, “These are not ordinary times. Everyday people are being left behind,” and adding that “we see the chaos that’s coming out of Washington only making it worse.”
Both parties’ voters reflected contrasting rationales for their choices. Shailendra Prakash, an unaffiliated voter from Raleigh, said he picked Cooper in the Democratic primary and wanted to “express that opinion” because he believed “we’re not headed in the right direction as a country,” saying his hope was that it “needs to flip.” Lisa Weaver, a Republican voter from Apex, said she voted for Whatley because, as the former RNC chairman, “he’s in tune with the issues that we care most about,” and Weaver said she believed in “the framework that he is offering for our country,” even while saying she did not love everything that Trump does.
The fall matchup also carries a political history that heightens the scrutiny on both campaigns. A Democrat has not won a U.S. Senate race in North Carolina since 2008, and Cooper has faced the challenge of maintaining momentum in a state where Trump carried the White House while Democrats retained the governor’s mansion. The AP report also said Whatley, 57, previously worked in the administration of President George W. Bush, for then-Sen. Elizabeth Dole, and as an energy lobbyist.
As the general election approaches, the campaigns have already been exchanging attacks. The AP reported that Whatley, Trump and other Republicans have criticized Cooper on criminal justice matters and have highlighted last August’s fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light-rail train, noting that Trump identified Zarutska’s mother during last week’s State of the Union address. In response, Cooper’s campaign has emphasized his own record, with the AP reporting that Cooper recently told reporters his career has been about “prosecuting violent criminals and keeping thousands of them behind bars,” while Cooper and allies have also attacked Whatley’s ties to Washington.
Separately, primary elections also played out across the state’s U.S. House races. In North Carolina’s northeastern 1st Congressional District, Laurie Buckhout defeated four other candidates for the GOP nomination and will face Democratic Rep. Don Davis in a rematch of their 2024 general election, which Davis won by less than 2 percentage points, the AP reported. The AP said Republicans altered the district as part of a Trump-linked multistate redistricting effort ahead of the 2026 elections, producing a more right-leaning 1st District that covers all or parts of 25 counties, while Republicans currently hold 10 of the state’s 14 House seats.