Republican Sen. Richard Burr appears to have fought back a surprisingly stiff challenge from former state legislator Deborah Ross, dealing a blow to Democrats’ hopes of taking over the upper chamber.

Democrats, who need at least a net gain of four seats in order to wrest control from Republicans, had marked North Carolina as a prime pickup opportunity. The Tar Heel State has become increasingly competitive with a recent influx of Hispanics and highly educated voters from other parts of the country.

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But Fox News projected Burr the winner at 9:10 p.m., with 70 percent of the precincts reporting. He had 51 percent of the vote.

The top of the ticket featured a dogfight between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, and Republican Gov. Pat McCrory mostly has trailed his Democratic challenger. Burr moved up to the Senate from the House of Representatives by defeating Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff, Erskine Bowles, in a bid to replaced Democrat John Edwards in the Senate in 2004 and won re-election in 2010.

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But national Republicans have griped that Burr’s laid-back style indicated he was not taking the threat from Ross seriously enough. His campaign and its outside allies tried to depict the Raleigh lawyer as too liberal for the state, highlighted by her tenure as head of the state’s American Civil Liberties Union — during which she fought efforts to ban flag desecration — and her support for tax increases as a member of the state House of Representatives.

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At one point, the Our Revolution super PAC produced a video in which Ross refused to answer a question about whether she was a socialist.

Burr’s win will have Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) breathing a bit easier.