WASHINGTON (TNND) — Democrats scored a major victory for their party’s hopes of pulling off one of few opportunities to flip a Senate seat from Republican control in the upcoming midterms with former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announcing he would be entering the race to fill the seat currently held by retiring Republican Thom Tillis.

Cooper was a highly sought-after Senate candidate for national Democrats that are hoping to pull off a long-shot bid to retake the majority in the upper chamber with a challenging map that includes few flip opportunities and multiple seats in swing states being vacated by retiring incumbents.

Democrats would need to net four seats to retake the Senate majority after the 2026 midterms. Most of the seats that are up for grabs are in places that lean heavily Republican but North Carolina was one of President Donald Trump’s closest margins of victory in 2024 at around 3%.

The two-term governor is a fixture in the state’s electoral politics after spending 16 years as North Carolina’s attorney general before first being elected as governor in 2016. He also served as a state legislator for more than a decade, giving him a long track record and high name recognition that will be valuable in one of the most contentious races in the upcoming cycle.

“I never really wanted to go to Washington. I just wanted to serve the people of North Carolina right here, where I’ve lived all my life,” Cooper said in an announcement video on Monday. “But these are not ordinary times.”

In another signal of his stature within the state’s Democratic Party, former Rep. Wiley Nickel announced he would be dropping out of the race and endorsed Cooper, likely clearing the field of a major challenger in the Democratic primary.

“Democrats have to be over the moon about landing Roy Cooper,” said David McLennan, a political science professor and director of the Meredith poll. “He’s a generational political figure just because he's been in office for so long you just don't find many people anymore that have that history in North Carolina, he's the sort of the Mount Rushmore candidate for the Democrats.”

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Watley, who has already secured the support of Trump, reportedly plans to run for the seat. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, announced she would not be running for the seat earlier this month and Rep. Pat Harrigan also said over the weekend he would seek reelection to the House instead.

Cooper and Watley are frontrunners likely to meet in the general election for what is anticipated to be one of the most expensive Senate races in history with both parties ready to spend hundreds of millions in advertising and campaigning in a swing state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 2008.

Cooper raised $3.4 million in the first 24 hours of his Senate campaign, breaking a record for fundraising, POLITICO reported on Tuesday.

“No. 1, Democrats are highly motivated because they've been out of power in D.C. and they don't like it and No. 2, they recognize there’s blood in the water. Donald Trump's approval ratings are getting close to historic lows and that's usually bad for the president's party, so Democrats feel like they can pick up some seats,” McLennan said.

Midterm elections have historically been referendums on the party in the White House, setting the stage for Democrats to make gains in the upcoming elections. Polling has found Trump’s approval ratings slumping, including on major issues that drive voting decisions like the economy and inflation.

History favors Democrats’ chances of flipping at least one chamber of Congress even with a challenging map and their own political issues. Five consecutive presidents have lost party control of Congress and voters have flipped control of either the House, Senate or the White House in nine out of the last 10 election cycles.

Cooper’s introduction to the North Carolina race is a boost for Democrats’ odds of flipping a seat, but the party is still facing an uphill climb to a majority and challenges hanging onto seats it currently holds with incumbents retiring in Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire and a highly competitive race in Georgia for Sen. John Ossoff’s seat.

While Democrats are hoping to capitalize on a favorable political environment, the party is dealing with its own struggles to repair its image in the continued backlash to former President Joe Biden’s presidency and handling of inflation. Congressional Democrats are also facing intense pushback from its base that sees it has failing to mount an effective resistance to Trump and Republican majorities in Congress.

A Wall Street Journal poll published Friday found 63% of voters have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, the highest level since its polling started in 1990. Just 33% of voters hold a favorable outlook of the party. The same poll also found that Republicans are more trusted by voters to handle major issues like the economy, tariffs and foreign policy even though the president is underwater on them.