Game on in North Carolina as former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper launches Senate bid for GOP-held seat
Former two-term Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is running for the Senate in battleground North Carolina.
Cooper announced his candidacy on Monday morning in the open-seat race to succeed Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced late last month that he wouldn’t run for re-election in the 2026 midterm elections.
“I have thought on it and prayed about it, and I have decided: I am running to be the next U.S. Senator from North Carolina,” Cooper said in a social media post.
Cooper’s campaign launch is seen as a major coup for the Democratic Party, as he was the party’s top recruit in next year’s elections, bolstering their chances of flipping a key GOP-held seat as they try to take a big bite out of the Republicans’ 53-47 Senate majority.
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His announcement was expected, as numerous news organizations, including Fox News, recently reported that the former governor would launch a campaign in the coming days.
And this past weekend, at the North Carolina Democrats “Unity Dinner,” Cooper teased his run during his speech.
He grabbed cheers when he asked people to stand up if they were running for office in 2026 and said, “Hey, I’m not sitting down, am I.”
Cooper, in a video announcing his candidacy, argued that “politicians in DC are running up our debt, ripping away our healthcare, disrespecting our veterans, cutting help for the poor, and even putting Medicare and Social Security at risk, just to give tax breaks to billionaires,” in a jab at President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said in a statement that “Governor Cooper is a formidable candidate who will flip North Carolina’s Senate seat, and his announcement is the latest indication that the Republicans’ Senate majority is at risk in 2026.”
The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the top super PAC supporting Senate Republicans, fired back.
“Chuck Schumer might be celebrating, but North Carolinians are still reeling from extreme liberal Roy Cooper’s botched response to Hurricane Helene that left over 100 people dead, his pardons of violent criminals, and his vetoes that allowed boys in girls’ sports and forced higher taxes on working families,” SLF Executive Director Alex Latcham claimed in a statement.
Ahead of his launch, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, targeted Cooper in a digital ad.
And in a statement Monday morning, NRSC Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez claimed that “Roy Cooper is a Democrat lapdog who spent his time as Governor sabotaging President Trump, doing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ bidding, releasing violent illegal aliens into North Carolina streets, and championing radical transgender ideology.”
Cooper isn’t the only Democrat to announce their candidacy. Former one-term Rep. Wiley Nickel launched a campaign for the Senate in North Carolina in April. But Wiley is expected to drop his bid and endorse Cooper.
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Cooper, who was a popular governor during his eight years steering North Carolina, was floated last year as a possible running mate for then-Vice President Kamala Harris after she succeeded then-President Joe Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee.
Cooper is likely to face off in next year’s general election with Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Whatley, in what would be one of the most competitive, bruising, and expensive Senate battles of 2026.
President Donald Trump, who is the ultimate kingmaker in GOP politics and whose endorsements in Republican primaries are extremely powerful, on Thursday gave Whatley his “Complete and Total Endorsement.”
“Mike would make an unbelievable Senator from North Carolina. He is fantastic at everything he does, and he was certainly great at the RNC,” Trump added, in a social media post.
And NRSC chair Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina called Whatley “a strong America First conservative who will be a champion for North Carolina in the U.S. Senate.
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Scott noted that “the Tar Heel State has supported President Trump in all three of his elections and elected Republicans to both its U.S. Senate seats for over a decade. With Michael as our candidate, we will win it again in 2026!”
Trump called Tillis’ announcement last month that he wouldn’t seek a third six-year term in the Senate “great news.”
Tillis is a GOP critic of the president, and Trump torched the senator last month for not supporting his so-called “big, beautiful” spending and tax cut bill.
Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and a North Carolina native who served last year alongside Whatley as an RNC co-chair, was considered to be Trump’s top choice to run for Tillis’ seat.
But in a statement on Thursday, Lara Trump said “after much consideration and heartfelt discussions with my family, friends, and supporters, I have decided not to pursue the United States Senate seat in North Carolina at this time.”
Whatley, who served as chair of the North Carolina GOP before being elected last year as RNC chair, said recently in a Fox News Digital interview that the Senate showdown in the Tar Heel State is “going to be one of the marquee races in the country.”
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