Republican Ted Budd defeated Cheri Beasley on Tuesday in the race for an open Senate seat in North Carolina, disappointing Democrats who saw it as a key pickup opportunity.
Mr. Budd had received slightly more than 50% of the vote when NBC News and ABC News called the race for the Republican, who is a current House member. He will replace retiring Sen. Richard Burr, another Republican, in the upper chamber.
Ms. Beasley, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court, had positioned herself as one of the “flippable five” alongside Democrats trying to swipe Senate seats from the GOP in Wisconsin, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The outcome will likely prompt soul-searching among national Democrats and raise questions about whether they should have devoted more resources to the Beasley campaign.
“Cheri works hard. She’s honest. And most importantly, she always puts the people first,” former President Barack Obama said in an endorsement. “This is going to be a close race, and we can’t afford to get it wrong.”
The race wasn’t as nasty as other contests around the country. It was a dead heat throughout the campaign, solidifying North Carolina’s role as an unpredictable purple state.
Mr. Budd began to pull away in the polls in recent weeks as part of a broader gain of GOP momentum across the country.
The Republican leaned heavily into the economic debate, saying Ms. Beasley would be a “rubber stamp” for Mr. Biden’s agenda and cause prices for everything from rent to groceries to rise again.
“Everything that Joe Biden has done is everything Cheri Beasley would. I think people are realizing here in North Carolina the policies they support just make life hard on us, and everything that I want to do makes life better for us,” Mr. Budd said late Monday on the Mark Levin show.
Ms. Beasley characterized Mr. Budd as a threat to abortion access and highlighted his reluctance to certify the 2020 presidential results, though Mr. Budd has said he thinks Mr. Biden is the legitimate president.
North Carolina’s other senator, Thom Tillis, is a Republican who does not face reelection until 2026.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.