Democrats win three Senate races as party moves within reach of majority

Cooper, the state's former two-term governor, becomes the first Democrat to represent North Carolina in the Senate in a decade, and his win marked the first Senate seat to turn blue in this year's midterms. He succeeds Republican Thom Tillis, who declined to seek re-election after clashing with Trump, in a state that has voted for Trump in all three of his presidential campaigns.

In his victory speech, Cooper said he was ready to take a message against “chaos and corruption in Washington” to Washington and pledged to work toward ending the US war against Iran. “We have to work to make healthcare, housing, and groceries more affordable, to end this war and stop the pain at the pump,” he said.

Cooper, who has never lost an election, campaigned on a “Make Stuff Cost Less” platform focused on lowering the cost of food, energy and housing, and pointed to his record on Medicaid expansion and teacher pay while governor. Whatley, a lawyer and former Republican National Committee chair who had never run for office, centered his campaign on the Trump agenda and tried to paint Cooper as the “soft-on-crime candidate”; Whatley and Republicans also pressed conservative anxieties about transgender athletes and immigration.

Cooper raised about three times as much as Whatley and never trailed in a poll. GOP-aligned super PACs canceled their ads and redirected spending to more promising states, and the Senate Leadership Fund, which directs money from Republican Senate leader John Thune's fundraising, wrote Whatley off and shifted its spending to Kansas.

Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win the Senate and three to take the House. Jon Ossoff won re-election in Georgia, defeating Rep. Mike Collins, and Rep. Chris Pappas won the open New Hampshire race against former Sen. John Sununu, succeeding retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Democratic incumbents Mark Warner, Chris Coons, Jack Reed, Cory Booker and Ed Markey were also re-elected, Democrat Juliana Stratton won the Illinois seat of retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, and Republican Ashley Moody won in Florida, running to finish the term of Marco Rubio, who became Trump's secretary of state. In western North Carolina, Republicans also turned over a congressional seat, where Democrat Jamie Ager campaigned on federal relief failures after Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards declined to run again.

Republicans were bracing to lose control of the House and fighting to hold the Senate, an outcome that had seemed unlikely earlier in the year given a map widely seen as favoring their party. More than 59 million people had cast ballots before Tuesday, surpassing early-voter turnout from 2022, according to an Associated Press analysis.

The AP Voter Poll found about three-quarters of voters said they feel "angry" or "dissatisfied" with the country's direction, three-quarters rated the economy "not so good" or "poor," and about 8 in 10 said inflation has caused "severe" or "moderate" financial hardship. Roughly half called government corruption and the cost of living "crucial" to their vote, and about 6 in 10 said Trump prioritizes his personal interests over the country's.

Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said: “Everything depends on turnout. If we turn out our voters, we win.” Trump said in a Fox News Channel interview that “inflation is solved” even though consumer prices rose 3.6 percent in September from a year earlier, the Commerce Department reported last week. He also said: “I think the results are going to be better than you think.”