Democrats gain ground in battle for Congress with North Carolina flip

Democrats flipped a Republican-held Senate seat in North Carolina and were showing surprising strength across several Republican-leaning House districts in Florida on Tuesday, boosting hopes they could wrest control of Congress from President Donald Trump’s Republicans in the midterm elections. It was still too early to determine whether Democrats would be able to net the four Senate seats and three House seats they need to win a majority in both chambers, with millions of votes still uncounted across the country.

In North Carolina, Democratic former Governor Roy Cooper easily defeated Trump-backed Republican Michael Whatley to win a Republican-held seat, media outlets projected. Senator Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, defeated US Representative Mike Collins in a contest that was once considered competitive but moved out of reach for Republicans amid Trump’s declining approval ratings.

In New Hampshire, Democrat Chris Pappas kept the state’s open Senate seat in Democratic hands, defeating Republican John Sununu.