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Former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, unofficially won the U.S. Senate seat vacated by outgoing N.C. Republican Sen.Thom Tillis in commanding fashion Tuesday night, joining other Democrats across the country in reclaiming Congress from Republican control, thanks to an historic “blue wave” of Democratic voters fueled by the Black vote that swept North Carolina and the nation.
Former Gov. Cooper, who hasn’t lost an election in 40 years, beat former National Republican Committee Chair Whatley in unofficial results 59 percent to 39 percent. Cooper becomes the first North Carolina Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat since the late Kay Hagan of Greensboro won 2008.
“North Carolinians made their voices heard, and they were loud,” said Cooper, a two-term former governor and four-term state attorney general, to cheers during his victory speech. “North Carolina, I accept your job offer!”
Cooper’s victory was seen as an important pickup in the Democrats’ hunt to pick up four seats from the Republican 53 seat majority in the U.S. Senate. As it stands, the Democrats will currently hold a 54-seat majority in the U.S. as there are two races yet to be called in Mississippi and Alaska.
North Carolinians voted to elect mostly Democrats to a statewide ballot Tuesday night that featured races of one U.S. Senate seat, 14 U.S. House seats, 1 NC Supreme Court Associate Justice seat, 50 state Senate seats, 120 N.C. House seats, local judges and district attorneys, county offices for sheriff, county commission boards and local boards of education; and local municipal elections.
That Democratic “blue wave” lifted Associate N.C. Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls to win a second eight-year term on the state’s high court, defeating Republican challenger Sarah Stevens, 59 to 41 percent unofficially, and setting up the possibility of Democrats winning three more seats in 2028, and reclaiming the court’s majority. Justice Earls is the high court’s only African American, and one of two Democrats there. Democrat John Arrowood also retained his seat on the N.C. Court Of Appeals by defeating Michael Byrne, 57 to 43 percent.
The wave also helped Democratic First District Congressman Don Davis win in a voting district that had been redrawn to give Republicans the advantage, similar to other formerly majority Black congressional districts across the country after the consequential U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Davis overcame that obstacle, defeating Republican Laurie Buckout, 49 to 47 percent.
District 2 Democrat Rep. Deborah Ross was also re-elected to serve a fourth term in Congress by 75 percent over Republican challenger Eugene Douglass, who garnered 23 percent of the votes.
Democrats flipped seats in the U.S. Congress as High Point Mayor Cyril Jefferson won the 6th Congressional District seat by defeating Republican incumbent Addison McDowell, 51 to 49 percent.
Third-generation retired newspaper publisher Chuck Hubbard narrowly defeated Republican incumbent Virginia Foxx by 99 votes for the 5th Congressional District seat. This race will likely see a recount.
Democrat Richard N. Ojeda II flipped the 9th Congressional District by defeating Republican Richard Hudson, 51 to 49 percent.
Democratic candidate Jamie Ager defeated Republican incumbent Jennifer Balkcom 57 to 41 percent for the 11th Congressional District seat.
The 13th Congressional District saw Democrat Paul Barringer defeat Republican incumbent Brad Knott, 51 to 48 percent.
In the 14th Congressional District, Democrat Lakesha Womack defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. and former N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore, 51 to 49 percent.
Another close race to likely see a recount is in the 3rd Congressional District where incumbent Republican Greg Murphy narrowly leads Democrat Raymond Smith by less than a percentage point, 49.4 to 49.3 percent.
12th Congressional District incumbent Democrat Alma Adams of Mecklenburg County won her seventh full term in Congress overwhelmingly, 81 percent to 19 percent over GOP challenger Jack Codina.
And two-term Democratic incumbent Valerie Foushee won a third term to represent the Fourth Congressional District by 79 percent over Republican Max Ganorkar with 19 percent.
All three of North Carolina’s Black Democratic congresspeople were reelected unofficially Tuesday night along with two new African American representatives, Jefferson and Womack, joining them in Washington.
Nationally, Democrats won back control of the U.S. House, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies of New York most likely becoming the next House Speaker, and the first African American to do so.
In the U.S. Senate, Democrats won North Carolina, Maine, Ohio, Texas, Kansas and South Carolina and held on to battleground seats in Georgia and Michigan to take the majority in January.
Another historic first, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, an African American, won her race to become governor of Georgia. She is the first African American woman ever elected to be a governor in the United States.
Most political observers credit the Black vote, the galvanization of college students and communities throughout the South for the massive Democratic Blue wave that swept the nation.
Winners of U.S. House and Senate races will begin their terms on January 3, 2027. N.C. Supreme Court and N.C. Court of Appeals winners will begin their next term on January 1, 2027.
