North Carolina U.S. Senate — 2026 (Class 2)

North Carolina U.S. Senate is on the November 3, 2026 ballot. A senator serves six years. Class 2, the class on the regular 2026 ballot, is the class whose terms expire in January 2027. In plain terms, what is at stake is one six-year vote in a 100-seat Senate, including votes on legislation and on confirmations. It is not a national scoreboard. Control of a chamber, where the office sits in one, depends on every other seat as well. This page is one contest.

The State Board’s general candidate list does not include Thom Tillis, so the seat is open. Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley are the major-party nominees, with Libertarian and Green candidates also listed. Cook’s stored label is Lean Democratic and the guide stores an Elon University poll. North Carolina has no governor’s race this year, so the Senate contest sits at the top of the ballot by itself, beside appellate courts and three constitutional amendments.

The principal names on the guide are Roy Cooper (DEM); Michael Whatley (REP). The guide also carries this listing note: The State Board of Elections general candidate list for U.S. Senate does not include Thom Tillis. Roy Cooper is cited to North Carolina State Board of Elections, 2026 general candidate list by contest (federal and state). Michael Whatley is cited to North Carolina State Board of Elections, 2026 general candidate list by contest (federal and state). Each of those sentences identifies a listing. It does not quote a speech. A campaign site is the candidate’s own words. This preview does not paste one unless a sentence above names that page, and these sentences name the election-office or Clerk list instead.

Cook Political Report published Lean D as of August 20, 2026. Those labels belong to the outlets. This site does not average them and does not treat them as a prediction of the canvass. One survey stored here is Elon University Poll, Aug 21–31, 2026: Cooper 49, Whatley 38 (Cooper +11). The sample line is “800 adults (LV subset).” The figures are that release, linked on the poll table. They are not an average, not a model, and not a forecast.

The last regular election for a Class 2 seat was 2020. The Federal Election Commission compiles the certified federal canvass after the states report it. This preview does not copy a 2020 or 2024 percentage it has not taken from that compilation or from North Carolina’s own canvass. A prior margin is a record of that year’s ballots.

North Carolina counts this ballot under its own calendar. Registration, early voting, and mail-ballot deadlines that this site has checked sit on the voting-deadlines page and on the state hub, each tied to an official page. Totals on election night are unofficial. Mail ballots, provisional ballots, and any later round the state requires can move them. Turnout is a ratio that changes with the denominator — voting-age population, registered voters, or ballots counted — and the Census Bureau’s survey is not the same instrument as the canvass. Nothing here is a call.