North Carolina’s 2026 Senate race is coming into focus as former Gov. Roy Cooper prepares to run and Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley, backed by President Donald Trump and GOP leadership, positions himself as the party’s likely nominee. 

Sen. Thom Tillis’s (R-NC) decision to step aside has turned North Carolina into one of 2026’s top Senate battlegrounds, opening a high-stakes contest in a state where Republicans have won seven of the last eight races. Whatley intends to run after Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, declined to launch a bid, according to multiple people familiar with the decision.