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Washington (CNN) -- Round One is done but this year's electoral fight between the GOP establishment and the tea party movement is far from over.

Moderates scored a victory on Tuesday in North Carolina's Republican Senate primary when state House Speaker Thom Tillis topped 40% of the vote, avoiding a runoff in July.

5 takeaways from N.C. primaries

Tillis beat a bunch of more conservative candidates for the chance to face off this November against first-term Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, who is considered very vulnerable in the general election.

Flipping her seat and five others held by Democrats would give Republicans control of the Senate.

"There are plenty of fights still to come, and it's too early to proclaim a winner and a loser. But it's already clear that the pragmatist conservatives have stopped the anti-establishment's electoral momentum," writes Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report.

Victories by more moderate mainstream candidates improve the GOP's odds of recapturing the Senate. Democrats hold a 55-45 majority but are defending 21 of the 36 seats up this year. Half of those Democratic seats are in red or purple states, like North Carolina.

Mainstream strikes back

Since the birth of the tea party movement in 2009, primary challenges from the right have produced major headlines and headaches for the GOP and hurt the party's chances of recapturing the Senate in the past two election cycles.

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Establishment GOP vs. tea party battle far from over