Roy Cooper wins North Carolina Senate seat for Democrats
Cooper, a former governor, beat Republican Michael Whatley to succeed the retiring Thom Tillis in the US Senate.
Key facts
Story- Democrat Roy Cooper won North Carolina's open US Senate seat, according to an Associated Press race call.
- Cooper defeated Republican Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chair.
- It is the first time in 10 years that North Carolina voters have sent a Democrat to the Senate.
Democrat Roy Cooper has won North Carolina's Senate seat, the Associated Press said, giving his party a gain in the chamber. The race call came early on Wednesday, 4 November, in the US midterm elections.
Cooper, the state's former governor, beat Republican Michael Whatley, a former chair of the Republican National Committee. He will succeed Thom Tillis, the outgoing senator, whose seat was open in this race.
Voters sent a Democrat to the upper chamber of Congress from North Carolina for the first time in a decade. Cooper built his campaign around lowering costs for voters, one of the main issues of the midterms.
A seat changing hands from Republican to Democrat shifts the balance of the Senate. Each seat in the closely watched midterm contests can affect which party controls the chamber.
Final vote totals and the margin of Cooper's win have not been released. Whatley has not yet responded to the result. Cooper is expected to take office after the new Congress is sworn in, but no date has been set.
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