Roy Cooper, a popular former North Carolina governor and a Democrat, won the state’s Senate race on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. Flipping the seat gives Democrats an essential victory as the party tries to gain Senate control.
Mr. Cooper, who left the governor’s office last year after two terms, defeated Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman. President Trump had handpicked Mr. Whatley try to hold the Senate seat in a battleground state that has voted for him three times.
But Mr. Whatley proved no match for Mr. Cooper, who has never lost an election in his nearly four decades in North Carolina politics. He is the first Democrat elected to the Senate in North Carolina since 2008.
Mr. Cooper will succeed Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican who had clashed with Mr. Trump and chose to retire after the president threatened him with a primary challenger.
Both parties expected an expensive and contested race between Mr. Cooper, 69, and Mr. Whatley, 58. The two sides spent significantly on political advertising until about a month ago, when Mr. Cooper’s consistent lead in polls began to look insurmountable.
Still, Democrats feared complacency in a state where they have fallen short in past Senate races. Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance traveled to North Carolina several times in recent weeks to rally for Mr. Whatley and Republicans in competitive House races.
A longtime Republican political operative, Mr. Whatley campaigned as a loyal Trump supporter and tried to portray Mr. Cooper, who served 16 years as the North Carolina attorney general, as soft on crime. That attack line was ineffective in a year in which voters were focused on the economy.
Mr. Cooper campaigned under the slogan “Make Stuff Cost Less.”
Republicans also tried to paint Mr. Cooper as a radical leftist, but it was difficult to redefine him after he had built a reputation as a moderate over 38 years in elective office.
As governor, Mr. Cooper guided the state through the coronavirus pandemic and three major hurricanes. His signature accomplishment was expanding Medicaid coverage to more than 600,000 people.
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