Democrats Grab North and South Carolina Senate Seats as Ossoff Holds Georgia

Democrats grabbed two Republican-held Senate seats Tuesday night, with Roy Cooper cruising to victory in North Carolina and pediatrician Annie Andrews squeaking past Darline Graham in South Carolina, according to media projections. NBC News and CNN called the South Carolina race for Andrews, making her the first Democrat to win a Senate seat there since 1998. Both wins chip away at a Senate map Republicans entered the night controlling 53-47, with Democrats needing a net gain of four seats to flip the chamber.

Cooper, a 69-year-old former two-term governor, beat Trump-backed Republican Michael Whatley — a former Republican National Committee chair who has never held elected office and campaigned alongside the president in the state. Cooper leaned hard on the high cost of food and energy, and told a packed Raleigh crowd that the win proved what happens when ordinary people organize. The president's falling approval ratings didn't hurt him either.

He'll take the seat vacated by Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who announced his retirement after breaking with Trump over Medicaid cuts in the president's signature tax and spending law. Cooper's statewide name recognition and pull with independent voters gave him a polling lead that never really slipped.

In South Carolina, Andrews upset Darline Graham, who had been temporarily filling the seat her late brother Lindsey Graham held until his death in July. Governor Henry McMaster appointed her after Trump recommended her for the role, and the president called it a lovely tribute to the foreign-policy hawk and close ally. But Graham proved a weaker candidate than her party — or Trump — had banked on.

Georgia's Jon Ossoff also held serve, winning a second term by defeating Republican Mike Collins. At 39, the Senate's youngest member started the cycle as a prime Republican target and the only Senate Democrat defending a state Trump carried in 2024 — then raked in more than $100 million as an unapologetic Trump critic, fueling chatter about a 2028 presidential run. Speaking to supporters, he called the results a rebuke of what he described as a corrupt and incompetent lame duck president.

Control of the Senate remains unsettled, with eyes on contests in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas. Polling heading into Tuesday suggested Democrats would take the House, while the Senate fight was always expected to come down to the wire.