Ted Budd Wins Against Democrat Cheri Beasley in North Carolina U.S. Senate Race

Trump-endorsed Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) is victorious against Democrat Cheri Beasley in the North Carolina U.S. Senate race, one of the top seats Republicans needed to hold to retake the Senate majority, NBC News projects. 

NBC News projected Budd’s win at 11:26 p.m. ET, just a few hours after polls closed. With 93 percent of ballots counted, Budd was leading former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court Cheri Beasley 50.8 percent to 47 percent (1,880,318 votes to 1,738,278 votes). 

Budd was leading Beasley by several points across several surveys in the two months before the high-stakes election after running an extremely tight race over the summer months. Budd, who is currently serving his third term in the House, will fill retiring Sen. Richard Burr’s (R-NC) seat. 

Budd largely campaigned on undoing the ills created by Democrat policies, like skyrocketing crime, inflation, and an out-of-control border crisis, and framed his opponent as a “rubber stamp” for President Joe Biden’s policies.

Beasley initially pitched herself as a middle-of-the-road Democrat, only to campaign with other Democrats who have a history of supporting the Defund the Police movement. Her far-left tendencies were further revealed in her only debate with Budd, in which she perpetuated the Russia collusion hoax, falsely asserted the Dobbs decision will keep women from receiving miscarriage care and falsely claimed that rioters “injured and killed hundreds of police officers and left Americans for dead” during the January 6 Capitol Riot.

Beasley notably doubled Budd in fundraising, though Budd received a lot of support from super PACs, national party committees, and other groups. According to OpenSecrets, Beasley raised nearly $34 million and spent nearly $31 million, while Budd raised roughly $12.5 million and spent $12.4 million as of Oct. 19.

As far as outside spending, the Senate Leadership fund recently spent  $36 million on ads in North Carolina to help Budd beat Beasley, and the race has seen more than $100 million in spending overall. 

Democrats have not won a North Carolina Senate race since 2008. The Tar Heel State also narrowly chose former President Donald Trump over Biden in 2020, and has voted for a GOP presidential candidate in every election since 1980 besides 2008 for former President Barack Obama.