Senator Thom Tillis said in June 2025 that he would not seek re-election, opening his North Carolina seat. Former Governor Roy Cooper and former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley, endorsed by President Trump, won their party primaries on 3 March 2026. They face Libertarian Shannon W. Bray and Green Michael Dublin on 3 November.
April 2025 to 20 October 2026 · 18 dated events · 17 sources
Status in the record · 2 November 2026
As of 2 November 2026 four candidates are on the ballot: Roy Cooper (Democratic), Michael Whatley (Republican), Shannon W. Bray (Libertarian) and Michael Dublin (Green). Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on 3 November, county canvasses are set for 13 November and the State Board canvass for 24 November.
Coverage through20 October 2026Editorial review2 November 2026
Next date 3 November 2026 General election
Main story: 29 June 2025 to 20 October 2026. The full timeline also includes labelled context or related events.
Overview · Apr 2025 to 20 Oct 2026 · click a dot to jump
18 events shown
2025
Apr 2025
Before the main event
Start
Wiley Nickel enters the race
Former US Representative Wiley Nickel formally entered the race for the Senate seat held by Thom Tillis in April 2025, seeking the Democratic nomination, the Associated Press reported.
Tillis votes against opening debate on the tax and spending bill
Tillis voted against advancing President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill, citing its health care cuts. Trump threatened to back a primary challenger, the Associated Press and NPR reported.
Tillis announced that he would not run for a third term in 2026. In his statement, he said compromise and independent thinking were becoming rarer in Washington. His retirement decision left the seat open.
Lara Trump, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, said on social media that she would not seek the seat, the Associated Press reported.
Former Governor Roy Cooper announced in a video on social media and his campaign website that he would seek the Democratic nomination, the Associated Press reported. AP reported that Cooper served 16 years as attorney general and eight as governor through 2024.
“But these are not ordinary times.”Roy Cooper, Associated Press via PBS NewsHour
Nickel ended his Senate campaign a day after Cooper's announcement and endorsed him, praising what he called Cooper's steady, bipartisan leadership, the Associated Press reported.
Whatley launched his campaign at an old textile mill near Charlotte, the Associated Press reported in a story datelined Gastonia. AP said he would leave the chairman's post at the Republican National Committee with his bid and had never been elected to government office.
MMichael Whatley31 Jul 2025
President Trump deserves an ally and North Carolina deserves a strong conservative voice in the Senate.
State Board of Elections records show Whatley filed on 2 December 2025, Cooper on 3 December and Libertarian candidate Shannon W. Bray on 17 December. Six candidates appeared on the Democratic primary ballot and seven on the Republican ballot, including Don Brown, Michele Morrow and Margot Dupre.
State Board rules a Republican candidate ineligible
The State Board of Elections voted to disqualify Margot Dupre from the Republican primary over its residency requirement, WFAE and Carolina Journal reported. Dupre disputed the decision and sought to remain in the race. The State Board's later composite results list votes for her.
Cooper and Whatley won their respective party primaries, the Associated Press reported. The State Board subsequently published their vote totals in its composite results.
Whatley framed the race as a choice between an ally for Trump in the Senate and a champion for the failed policies of the left, while Cooper said Republican policies were driving up prices and that tariffs and possible health care cuts were hurting North Carolinians, and called Whatley an out-of-touch D.C. insider, the Associated Press reported. AP said Whatley, Trump and other Republicans had criticized Cooper's criminal justice record as soft on crime, pointing to the August 2025 fatal stabbing of a refugee on a Charlotte light rail train.
State Board certifies most primary results but holds the Senate contest
The State Board of Elections certified state and local primary contests but held back the US Senate primary and six US House primaries. It said that in 10 counties the provisional ballots of 16 voters on its Registration Repair list had not been counted in the federal contests, referring to a consent judgment with the US Justice Department. It directed those counties to count the votes within two weeks and said they could not affect the outcome of any contest.
The State Board's composite results for the federal contests show Cooper with 761,345 of 827,755 Democratic primary votes and Whatley with 405,140 of 627,404 Republican primary votes. Don Brown was second in the Republican primary with 97,891 votes, and Justin E. Dues second in the Democratic primary with 22,295.
Cooper and Whatley had not agreed to a debate, according to reports by The Assembly and WUNC. Both campaigns had expressed willingness to discuss a debate, without announcing an agreement.
The State Board's general election candidate list names four Senate candidates: Cooper for the Democrats, Whatley for the Republicans, Shannon W. Bray for the Libertarians and Michael Dublin for the Green Party.
Trump held a rally with Republican candidates at Pitt-Greenville Airport and said his encouragement had led Whatley to run, the Associated Press reported.
“I'm the one that got him into this.”Donald Trump, Associated Press (via WPTV)
Coverage through 20 October 2026. Editorial review: 2 November 2026. Spotted an error? See corrections. Copyright concerns: report an asset. Every event links to its sources. Source type does not establish whether a claim is true.
