In the 2026 midterm election, North Carolina Democrats secured wins across the state, including flipping the U.S. Senate seat, several Congressional seats and the North Carolina House.
The North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation (NCFREE) unveiled its new Election Night results dashboard providing an easy-to-use source to understand election results as they come in. It is a huge upgrade from scrolling through the State Board of Elections website.
Former Governor Roy Cooper defeated Republican Michael Whatley 58.7% to 39.1%. This was generally expected by political observers.
The surprise story of the night is the down ballot impact of Cooper’s victory. The Election Night Dashboard from NCFREE predicts that Democrats are on track to pick up six Congressional seats. Currently, as of right now the North Carolina Congressional delegation is set to switch from ten Republicans and four Democrats to ten Democrats and four Republicans.
Control of the General Assembly
As of right now, the North Carolina Democrats are expected to control the House, while Republicans are expected to control the State Senate. Leading to divided government.
Notably the three constitutional amendments passed with a fairly wide margin of victory.
Tim’s Take: This is a massive swing in North Carolina politics and will shape governing over the next couple of years. The partisan divide between the legislative and executive branches on both the federal and state level will likely lead to gridlock over the next two years, until the next election.
