By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper will run for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, giving Democrats a proven statewide winner in an open-seat race that is expected to be one of the most competitive 2026 contests.
Cooper made the announcement Monday with a <a href=" released on social media and his campaign website. The former two-term governor will immediately become the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley plans to run for the GOP nomination, with President Donald Trump’s blessing, according to two people familiar with his thinking who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly before an official announcement.
Whatley, the former North Carolina GOP chairman, received Trump’s endorsement after the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, passed on the seat.
Cooper’s candidacy is a big recruiting win for Democrats, who see the seat as a top pick-up opportunity in what will be a challenging year. To retake the majority in 2026, Democrats need to net four seats, and most of the contests are in states that Trump easily won last year. Trump won North Carolina by about 3 percentage points, one of his closest margins of victory.
Trump endorsed Whatley on his Truth Social platform Thursday night, posting that should he run, “Mike would make an unbelievable Senator from North Carolina.”
Video focuses on the middle class
Cooper’s video announcement emphasized the middle class, which he said is in danger of being eliminated in America with unfavorable election outcomes next year. With no mention of Trump, Cooper said “politicians in D.C.” are “running up our debt, ripping away our health care” and “cutting help for the poor,” even as they “give tax breaks to billionaires.”
“That’s wrong. And I’ve had enough,” Cooper added.
Ex-U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel already has been campaigning for the Democratic nomination for months. Reached by phone, Nickel said he would release on Tuesday a statement about his political future. Party primaries would be March 3.
State Democrats anticipating Nickel would stand aside quickly rallied around Cooper.
Cooper “is one of the best champions North Carolina has ever had, and we are confident he will flip this seat in 2026,” state Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said in a release. Current Democratic Gov. Josh Stein also endorsed Cooper on Monday.
Cooper’s political history goes back to 1980s
Cooper, 68, has been on statewide ballots going back a quarter-century — serving 16 years previously as attorney general before being first elected governor in 2016.
With a political career going back nearly 40 years, Cooper has had a knack for winning in a state where the legislature and appeals courts are now dominated by Republicans. State law barred Cooper from seeking a third consecutive gubernatorial term. He spent the spring on a teaching gig at Harvard.
“I never really wanted to go to Washington. I just wanted to serve the people of North Carolina right here, where I’ve lived all my life,” Cooper said in the video. “But these are not ordinary times.”
State and national Democrats were longing for Cooper to join the race well before Tillis announced June 29 that he would not seek a third term. That news came after Trump threatened to back a primary candidate against him as Tillis opposed Medicaid reductions in the president’s tax break and spending cut package,
North Carolina Democrats on Senate losing streak
Democrats haven’t won a Senate race since 2008 in North Carolina, where independent voters tend to vote Republican in federal elections. Statewide races can be financially exorbitant because there are so many television markets — hundreds of millions of dollars are expected to be spent in the race.
As governor, Cooper steered the state through the coronavirus pandemic, Hurricanes Helene and Florence and a law that became an early flashpoint in the culture wars over access to public restrooms by transgender people. That “bathroom bill” was rolled back early in Cooper’s first term, and the state’s economy soared during Cooper’s tenure.
While Cooper also managed to work with Republican lawmakers to get Medicaid expansion approved and a landmark greenhouse gases law enacted, he fell short in stopping legislation that widely expanded private school vouchers and narrowed abortion rights.
Cooper’s perceived accomplishments raised his national profile in 2024, making him a potential running mate for Kamala Harris until he said it “just wasn’t the right time” for him and for North Carolina.
Republicans panning Cooper’s long record
Republicans on Monday immediately jumped on Cooper’s vast political record in an attempt to paint him as having radical views.
The Senate Leadership Fund, the campaign arm of Senate Republicans, released a social media video blasting in part Cooper’s gubernatorial vetoes of legislation that barred transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams in schools and that directed sheriffs to comply with federal immigration agents’ requests to detain certain jail inmates. The bills ultimately became law after veto overrides.
Republicans also have cited a gubernatorial administration they say was slow to respond to Helene and executive orders that restricted businesses and school instruction too long during the pandemic. As for the roaring state economy, Republicans credit themselves through lower taxes and deregulation.
“There are people you trust in the driver’s seat. Roy Cooper isn’t one of them,” the National Republican Senatorial Committee said in its own video. “Roy Cooper isn’t just off course — he’s a wreck.”
Tillis’ retirement announcement heartened far-right Republicans and strong Trump supporters who have been unhappy for years with his willingness to challenge Trump’s actions and his Cabinet agency choices.
Republicans had deferred to Lara Trump, who is a North Carolina native, North Carolina State University graduate and a popular former RNC co-chair with Whatley during the 2024 election campaign. She posted on the social media platform X on Thursday that she would not seek the Senate seat. Another potential candidate, first-term Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., said over the weekend he would seek reelection instead.