North Carolina had some of the most pivotal races this year — from the U.S. Senate to the state Supreme Court to the U.S. House to the state legislature. Our partners helped win BIG TIME in a state that could determine control of Congress and the White House for years to come.
Flipping the Senate!
MVP partners helped secure a landslide victory for Roy Cooper, flipping this open Senate seat by more than 19 points. MVP invested early in North Carolina, and as momentum for Roy Cooper grew, the GOP all but abandoned the state and was forced to play harder in places like Kansas and Iowa. As a perpetual battleground state, this victory and the statewide organizing that supported it will only strengthen MVP’s North Carolina partners and the ecosystem they are part of, helping them hold Cooper accountable in 2027 and pave the way for a presidential victory in 2028.
Photo: Siembra NC launched their final Vote Blitz before Election Day in Greensboro, NC, talking to voters about data centers and the need to reelect Anita Earls to the state Supreme Court.
Anita Earls Reelected to the NC Supreme Court!
Democrat Anita Earls won reelection to the North Carolina Supreme Court by nearly 18 points! This win was a must for flipping the state Supreme Court in 2028 to then unrig North Carolina’s gerrymandered maps and could singlehandedly help us keep the House in future cycles.
Photo: Down Home NC canvassers heading out to knock doors in support of Anita Earls for state Supreme Court and several state legislative seats in Alamance County, NC.
More NC victories: House! State legislature!
The Tar Heel State showed up to WIN. While we are still waiting on a handful of other races to be called, things are looking very good.
U.S. House
- NC-01: In what’s likely to be one of several “dummymanders,” Democrat Don Davis is leading by 3+ points, with 99% of the vote in. If he wins, this will be a huge victory in a district drastically redrawn to favor Republicans during Trump’s mid-decade redistricting fight.
- NC-11: Democrat Jamie Ager won in a landslide over GOP candidate Jennifer Balkcom in this western North Carolina district that Republicans won by nearly 14 points in 2024.
- NC-13: In an unlikely-but-true turn of events, Democrat Paul Barringer is up 2.4 points against first-term GOP incumbent Brad Knott in this wildly gerrymandered district that Knott won by 17 points in 2024. And I do mean wild. In 2023, Republicans redrew NC-13 to carve out large chunks of Durham and Raleigh.
State Legislature: A majority in the state House!
Our goal was to block a GOP supermajority in the state House and break a GOP supermajority in the state Senate, but guess what: We won a majority in the state House and are two seats away from a majority in the state Senate! And we did it with aggressively gerrymandered maps. As our North Carolina state advisor said, “We went from one seat away from a legislative supermajority to one seat away from a TRIFECTA.”
This is a huge win, putting us in a position to set and pass a bold legislative agenda in 2027 and set the stage for big wins in 2028 and 2030. We thought a Democratic trifecta in North Carolina was achievable, but not until … 2030. These 2026 results prove that our partners can help shift the balance of power in a perpetually purple, overly rigged, southern state.
Photo: Volunteers with Carolina Federation’s Guilford County chapter — Guilford for All — gearing up for a 5 am lit drop on Election Day.
MVP partners made the difference
Huge credit to MVP partners, who crushed the midterms thanks to their year-round organizing and incredible field programs.
MVP partner Down Home NC knocked hundreds of thousands of doors across the state, mobilizing voters in support of Roy Cooper, Anita Earls, and Democratic state legislative candidates. They partnered with local creators to educate and organize voters online and in real life through creative content that let NC voters know the impact their vote could have. And they spread the word about North Carolina’s last-minute changes to absentee ballot requirements to help make sure voters’ ballots would not be thrown out.
As of November 1, Carolina Federation knocked nearly 600,000 doors and talked to more than 73,000 voters about why they should vote for Roy Cooper, Anita Earls, and Democratic state legislative candidates. Their organizing chapters around the state were at polling places during early voting and on Election Day, handing out literature about what was on voters’ ballots and encouraging them to vote for Dems. Their Guilford for All chapter in Greensboro was up at 5 am on Election Day, dropping off lit and making sure everyone knew it was the last day to vote.
Siembra NC has been organizing immigrants all year, protecting them from ICE attacks, wage theft, and more. In the lead-up to the midterms, they turned that organizing into electoral power, mobilizing voters for Anita Earls and target state legislature races. Siembra NC has also been out defending the right to vote and calling North Carolina election administrators to count every vote and certify the elections. They gathered at county boards of elections for election-night vote vigils and are demanding that election officials don’t give in to partisan pressure to challenge results.
Photo: Advance Carolina canvassers knocking doors as part of their “A Summer Outside” campaign.
Advance Carolina released their “Black Ballot” endorsement, which included Roy Cooper, Anita Earls, Don Davis (NC-01), and several other House and state legislature candidates. They knocked doors across the state and went extra hard in NC-01 to help Don Davis win reelection in his newly gerrymandered district.
North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund also hit the doors across the state, with a focus on NC-01. They made sure students knew where to find their on-campus polling places and that voters had all the info needed to cast their ballots.
