Key US Senate results: Democrats wrest North and South Carolina from the Republicans

While polling suggested the Democratic Party would wrest the House of Representatives away from President Donald Trump's Republican Party in the US midterm elections, the struggle for the Senate is expected to be a close one. Republicans held a 53-47 Senate majority going into Tuesday’s elections, ​with Democrats needing a net ‌gain of four seats to take control. All eyes are on Senate contests in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas. Follow live for the latest results in the battle for the US Senate. Democrats flip North Carolina Democrat ⁠Roy Cooper ​handily won North Carolina’s US Senate race, defeating Trump-backed Republican Michael Whatley and giving Democrats a crucial pickup in their battle ​for ‌Senate control. Cooper, a well-known former two-term ⁠governor, defeated Trump's hand-picked candidate after campaigning ‌on the high cost of food and ⁠energy as the president's approval ratings fell. “Tonight, we showed the country that when everyday people come together, we can make change,” Cooper told a crowd of energetic supporters in Raleigh, pledging to get straight to work in Washington on affordability, which he centred in his campaign. Read moreLive results of the 2026 US midterm elections Cooper, 69, will replace Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who announced his ‌retirement after breaking with Trump over Medicaid cuts in the president’s ​signature tax and spending law. With statewide name recognition, Cooper built a significant polling lead, drawing strong ​support from independent voters. Whatley, a former Republican ​National Committee chair who has never ​held elective office, campaigned alongside Trump in North Carolina. Shock upset in South Carolina Democrats picked up another Senate seat when pediatrician Annie Andrews narrowly defeated Darline Graham, who was seeking to permanently fill her late brother Lindsey Graham's shoes, media projections showed. She is the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in South Carolina since 1998 Andrews stunned Darline Graham, who temporarily filled the seat after her brother's death in July but turned out not to be as strong a candidate as her party – or Trump – had hoped. NBC News and CNN called the race in Andrews's favour. Graham was appointed to the Senate by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster after Trump recommended her for the role. The president described the appointment as a "fabulous tribute" to her late brother, a prominent foreign-policy hawk and close Trump ally. Ossoff wins re-election in Georgia Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff was re-elected to a second term, holding a key seat for Democrats by defeating Republican Mike Collins in a race that catapulted the Senate’s youngest member to the forefront of his party’s national stars as it looks to stymie Trump in his final White House years. Ossoff, 39, began the cycle as a top Republican target and the only Senate Democrat running for re-election in a state Trump carried in 2024. But from the start, the senator ran as an aggressive Trump critic, with blistering critiques of “a failed president” that became a staple of voters’ social media feeds across the country. He became a fundraising juggernaut, pulling in more than $100 million and sparking speculation about a potential 2028 presidential bid to succeed the man he said has used the Oval Office to enrich himself and damage the US political and economic system. Read moreMidterms 2026: Georgians on the front lines of the people’s war against data centres Ossoff addressed supporters Tuesday night and reiterated his key talking points that the Trump administration is corrupt and that everyday Americans were falling behind. “The American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the failed lame duck president Donald J. Trump," told his supporters Tuesday night. “Together, we’ve affirmed that our task is not just to contain one president’s wickedness, but to heal the brokenness beneath," he added. (FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AFP and AP)