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Can Democrats Win the Senate Next Year?
The Stakes with John Harwood

Can Democrats Win the Senate Next Year?

Thanks to Roy Cooper, the Dems just got a boost in their quest to recapture the upper chamber in 2026.

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John Harwood
Jul 31, 2025
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Can Democrats Win the Senate Next Year?
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North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper on Oct. 30, 2024. Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/ AFP via Getty Images

After recriminations that always follow a crushing defeat, political parties eventually stop fighting the last battle and start fighting the next one.

Roy Cooper helped Democrats begin making that turn this week.

The former North Carolina governor announced his 2026 candidacy for the US Senate seat of retiring Republican Thom Tillis. Cooper’s folksy appeal – and the GOP’s propensity for nominating extremists – give him a solid chance of winning in a state that has so often broken Democratic hearts.

That glint of sunshine does not make Cooper’s party likely to recapture control of the Senate next year. But his willingness to make the race sustains their longshot hopes of a midterm election comeback that could limit the damage Donald Trump inflicts on our country during his final two years in the Oval Office.

The 2026 elections remain a long way off. As the unexpected and unpredictable re-emergence of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal demonstrates, political weather can shift very quickly.

But midterm contests tend to fall into familiar grooves that now give every sign of reasserting themselves.

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