Democrats Flip North Carolina Senate Seat as Exit Polls Put Trump Approval at 38%

Roy Cooper, the former Democratic governor, won North Carolina's Senate race Tuesday night. CBS News, NBC News and NPR all projected the result, and Fox News reported that Cooper defeated a Trump ally. Forbes described it as the first Senate seat flipped on election night, and the result flips the seat for Democrats.

Republicans entered the night with a 53-47 Senate majority. Democrats need a net gain of four seats for an outright majority. Fox News's final Power Rankings rated the chamber a toss-up, with Vice President JD Vance's tie-breaking vote meaning the GOP must hold 50 seats to keep control.

Cooper's win is one of the four net seats Democrats need. The rest of the map is still moving.

Where the Senate stands at 9:47 PM ET

Incumbent Democrats held serve in the early calls. Jon Ossoff won reelection in Georgia over Rep. Mike Collins. Sen. Mark Warner won in Virginia. In New Hampshire, Rep. Chris Pappas was projected the winner of the Senate race.

Republicans held one of their own. Sen. Ashley Moody won the special election in Florida for the seat Marco Rubio vacated.

CNBC's live coverage described the Texas Senate race as leaning Democratic. That race has not been called. Fox's rankings had Alaska, Iowa, Maine, South Carolina and Texas as toss-ups, all seats Republicans are defending.

In the House, Rep. Katherine Clark said Democrats are on track to win control tonight. Fox's Power Rankings pointed to Democrats retaking the chamber, but no network has projected a House majority.

What voters told exit pollsters

A joint voter survey run by SSRS for ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, MS NOW, NBC and the Associated Press shows deep unhappiness. CBS's preliminary exit polling puts Trump's approval at 38%. NBC's version was 38% approve, 62% disapprove. By the standard of Election Day exit polls, that is the lowest for a sitting president since George W. Bush in 2008.

The AP's preliminary figures found about 60% of voters said higher prices were "because of President Trump's policies," more than said they were due to factors beyond his control. About 40% named the economy as their top issue. About 30% named democracy.

CNN's poll found nearly nine in 10 voters called the cost of living a decisive or major factor. About three-quarters said the economy was in poor shape. Democrats narrowly led Republicans as the party best able to handle the economy, an edge Republicans have held in past cycles, CNN said.

About three-quarters of voters in the AP poll said they felt angry or dissatisfied with the country's direction. About 70% said Congress should do more to check the president. Roughly one-fifth of 2024 Trump voters disapproved of his job performance, according to CNN.

These are preliminary numbers. The national survey carries a margin of error of plus or minus 0.6 percentage points, CNN said. State and group results carry larger margins, and the data is adjusted as actual results arrive.

Iran strikes hours before polls closed

CBS News reported that Trump ordered new strikes on Iran hours before the midterms, despite having said he would not. PBS reported U.S. strikes on the Strait of Hormuz hours before Tuesday's midterms. In the CNN poll, a majority of voters called the U.S. military action against Iran "the wrong decision."

Fox News tied the GOP's difficult climate in part to persistent inflation and what it called an unpopular war with Iran.

The president's argument

Trump framed the vote as a referendum on himself. "Think of me as being on the ballot," he told supporters. In the NBC poll, 59% of voters said he influenced their vote.

He also predicted Republicans would hold both chambers. "If you elect a Republican House and a Republican Senate on Nov. 3, we will continue to put America first every single day," he said on the campaign trail last week. He warned that if Democrats win, "this country will go to hell." CBS reported he has said he would be "Mr. Veto" to Democrats.

History is against him. The party in power traditionally loses seats in midterms. The exit polls also show a split between approval of Trump and the way people voted: CNN found fewer than one-fifth of voters said they cast House ballots to support him.

What is still open

Michigan, Texas and Maine, all flagged by CBS as races to watch, remain outstanding along with Alaska, Iowa and South Carolina. Polls in Hawaii and almost all of Alaska close at midnight Eastern, and the final polls of the 2026 midterms close at 1 a.m.

The count in Maine has been slow in past cycles. In 2024 it did not reach the halfway mark until 12:54 a.m., according to the AP. A final answer on the Senate may not come tonight.