State insurance commissioners will also play a major role in responding to the effects of low interest rates on issuers of life insurance, annuities, long-term care insurance and other products that depend heavily on returns on investments in bonds and other fixed-income investments.

Goodwin, a Democrat who was elected North Carolina's insurance commissioner in 2008, and re-elected in 2012, was losing to Mike Causey, a Republican.

Goodwin had 49.57 percent of the vote, and Causey had 50.43 percent.

North Carolina had vote counts from 2,695 of the state's 2,704 precincts, according to state election officials.

Goodwin was doing better than Hillary Clinton, who had just 45 percent of the vote, but worse than Roy Cooper, the state's Democratic candidate for governor. Cooper was leading the Republican in the race, Pat McCrory, by 48.97 percent to 48.86 percent.

Mike Kreidler, a Democrat who's been Washington state's commissioner since 2000, had a 60 percent to 40 percent lead over his Republican opponent, Richard Schrock.

Kreidler was doing better than Jay Inslee, the Democratic candidate for governor, who had 56 percent of the vote in a race against Marty McClendon, a Republican.

Three states had insurance commissioner races with no incumbent on the ballot.

In Delaware, Trinidad Navarro, a Democrat, defeated Jeffrey Cragg, a Republican, by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent.

Navarro is a county sheriff who spent a few years as a life and health insurance agent before he went into law enforcement.

Navarro beat Karen Weldin Stewart, the current commissioner, in the Democratic primary in September. He argued that Weldin Stewart had spent too much time out of the state and was going too easy on insurance companies.

He did better in Delaware than Hillary Clinton, who beat Trump in the state by a margin of 53 percent to 42 percent.

In Montana, Monica Lindeen, the current commissioner, gave up her post because of a state law that limited how many terms she could serve. The Democrat ran for secretary of state. At press time, with 349 of 686 precincts reporting at least some votes, she was losing to the Republican, Corey Stapleton, 40 percent to 56 percent.

Jesse Laslovich, one of Lindeen's aides, squared off against Matt Rosendale, a Republican. At press time, Rosendale had a 54 percent to 45 percent lead over Laslovich.

Clinton was losing to Trump in the state by a margin of 40 percent to 52 percent.

Steve Bullock, the Democratic candidate for governor, was winning over Greg Gianforte, 49 percent to 47 percent.

In North Dakota, the insurance commissioner post was available because Adam Hamm, decided not to seek another term.

At press time, with 375 to 432 of the precincts reporting, Jon Godfread, a Republican who has been working at the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, had a 63 percent to 28 percent lead over Ruth Buffalo, a Democrat.

Nick Bata, a Libertarian, had 9 percent of the votes.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, voters voted on proposed Amendment 69, a ballot measure that calls for Colorado to set up a government-run health care system for all residents. With 39 of 64 votes counted, the single-payer health care measure was losing by a margin of 20 percent to 80 percent.

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