WASHINGTON – Roy Cooper announced he will run for an open U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina, a big win for Democrats who had been eyeing the former two-term governor as their best chance of flipping the swing state seat in the 2026 midterms.
Cooper, 68, is joining what is expected to be a competitive race to succeed Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who said he will not seek reelection. President Donald Trump has already weighed in on the race, endorsing Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley – who has yet to announce his candidacy – in a social media post.
In a video shared on X July 28, Cooper said that he “never really wanted to go to Washington,” before adding: “But these are not ordinary times.
Cooper served as the North Carolina governor from 2017 to 2025, during which he expanded Medicaid coverage in the state, raised teacher pay and worked to address climate change. He previously served in the state’s legislature and as North Carolina’s attorney general.
After Cooper’s announcement, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the main campaigm arm for Senate Republicans, quickly released an ad criticizing him as a “wreck.”
“There are people you trust in the driver’s seat. Roy Cooper isn’t one of them,” the narrator of the ad says, knocking his decision to implement COVID-19 lockdowns and veto a bill restricting transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports, among other issues.
Though former Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel of North Carolina announced a Senate run in April, numerous news reports indicate he is deciding whether to suspend his campaign.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper speaks during a North Carolina League of Municipalities meeting at Foothills Higher Education Conference Center in Morganton, N.C., Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
Democrats have had mixed success in North Carolina. The party last won a Senate election in North Carolina during the the 2008 cycle, when Kay Hagan defeated then-incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole. That’s also the last time a Democratic presidential nominee won the state when Barack Obama defeated John McCain en route to capturing the White House.
Hagan, meantime, lost her reelection bid to Tillis in the 2014 election. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. The North Carolina Senate race will be closely watched as Democrats seek to regain control of the upper chamber and try to block Trump’s second-term agenda from advancing.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrat Roy Cooper jumps into race for North Carolina Senate seat
