Although the U.S. Senate race between Republican Thom Tillis and Kay Hagan was close across the state, Tillis won Beaufort County without a problem.

Across the state, Tillis, a Republican and speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives, appears to have narrowly defeated incumbent Kay Hagan, a Democrat. His apparent victory will give Republicans control of the U.S. Senate next year.

In Beaufort County, Tillis collected 54.79 percent of the vote (9,718 votes) to Hagan’s 39.78 percent (7,057 votes). Sean Haugh, the Libertarian candidate, picked up 4.94 percent of the vote (877 votes). Vote totals are unofficial.

Statewide, Tillis received 48.87 percent of the vote (1,412,806) to Hagan’s 47.2 percent (1,364,533). Libertarian Sean Haugh earned 3.74 percent of the vote (108,140). Write-in candidates received .18 percent of the vote (5,229).

In Beaufort County, 54.82 percent of registered voters took part in the elections, with 17,959 of the county’s 32,762 voters marking ballots.

“That’s about par for a general election — off-year general election,” said Kellie Harris Hopkins, elections director for Beaufort County, on Wednesday. “I can’t remember what we did in 2010. I want to say it was 52 percent, so we were a little bit higher this time. I was thinking it would be slightly higher than that.’

Hopkins said there were no voting-related problems in the county. “Everything went great,” she said.

Statewide, voter turnout was at 43.99 percent, with 2,915,757 of the state’s 6,627,862 registered voters marking ballots.

Tillis carried all of Beaufort County’s 21 precincts except Aurora, Blounts Creek, Washington 1, Washington 2 and Washington 3 (P.S. Jones). Hagan took those precincts.

Tillis collected 5,529 votes in the county on Election Day. During the early voting period, he garnered 4,025 votes. He also received 164 votes by absentee ballots received by mail.

In Beaufort County, Hagan had 3,424 votes on Election Day. She received 3,570 votes during the early voting period and 63 votes by absentee ballots mailed to the Beaufort County Board of Elections.

Hagan carried the neighboring counties of Hyde, Pitt, Martin and Washington. Tillis carried the neighboring counties of Craven and Pamlico.

The race resulted in more than $100 million in spending from the candidates and outside groups and that proved to clinch the U.S. Senate majority for the GOP, according to The Associated Press.

Tillis, a suburban Charlotte resident, won after spending months linking Hagan to President Barack Obama on policies from the president’s signature health care law to the Islamic State militants. He’s said he’ll work to get rid of the health care law and pressure Obama to direct a more forceful and vigorous national security policy.

“I knew that you all and North Carolinians want elected officials that are going to go to Washington to get something done and to fulfill our promises,” Tillis said early Wednesday to supporters in Charlotte after Hagan called to congratulate him.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.