Senate Republicans are bracing for a bruising fight as they try to keep control of the seat held by the departing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), as Democrats just recruited their dream candidate in former Gov. Roy Cooper.

According to NOTUS, now that Tillis has signaled he will not seek re-election amid mounting fights and frustration with President Donald Trump, and the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, a native of the state, declined to run after facing months of speculation herself, Cooper “will instead likely face Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chair who has emerged as the GOP’s consensus candidate in what might be the country’s most competitive — and expensive — Senate race.”

While Democrats have won the last three consecutive governor races in North Carolina and a handful of row offices, they have been continually frustrated in federal races in the state; the last time they carried federal statewide races there was 2008, when former President Barack Obama carried the state and Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan unseated GOP Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

Democratic strategists are aware they are not guaranteed victory in this race; however, Republicans are nervous, with both sides expecting the race will “likely to come down to just a couple of percentage points.”

Tillis told NOTUS, “It’s going to be a knife fight in a telephone booth,” and added he hopes Whatley will be up to the challenge.

The North Carolina Senate contest is the Democrats’ primary chance to expand their Senate caucus, along with Sen. Susan Collins’ seat in Maine, after a bruising loss last year.

Other than these seats, the report noted, their main options are to contest seats in Iowa, Ohio, and Texas, which Trump carried by double digits, while at the same time holding onto seats in Michigan and Georgia, where Trump narrowly won after having lost the states previously in 2020.