Former Governor Roy Cooper expected to announce 2026 Senate bid
RELATED: Former Gov. Roy Cooper may announce plans to run for Senate
Governor Josh Stein is already offering his support.
'I worked for Roy Cooper when he was attorney general for eight years. I think he is an amazing person as well as public official. So there is one North Carolina voter who would be thrilled to be able to cast his vote for him. As it's Roy Cooper's decision to make, we'll see what he does,' Governor Stein said.
Cooper would seek the seat Republican Senator Thom Tillis is leaving. Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper says the race is expected to be the most competitive and expensive Senate battle of 2026.
'I think this is almost certainly going to be the most expensive Senate race in North Carolina history and possibly will be the most expensive U.S. Senate race in American history. We're going to end up with Roy Cooper, it looks like, almost certainly on the Democratic side, somebody who can probably raise $100 million. We've got, on the Republican side, names being tossed around like Lara Trump, like Michael Whatley, the current head of the RNC. We're going to be talking about big money, probably the likes of which we just haven't really seen before,' said Chris Cooper, a Western North Carolina Political Science professor.
Dr. Cooper says the former governor, state attorney general, and lawmaker has the political resume to go up against republican senate hopefuls Michael Whatley or Lara Trump.
But the professor doesn't believe this means North Carolina is making a full shift to being a blue state.
'So he's got a fairly high approval rating. It doesn't mean that he's universally loved by any stretch, but it does mean that he's pretty popular. He's obviously somebody who has built the kind of track record that is going to be difficult to deal with for any Republicans. So I think this truly is a toss-up seat. I think it was going to be kind of a scramble for exactly who the next candidate, who the right candidate would be,' Dr. Cooper said.
Will this swing the pendulum if a Democrat is elected to the seat?
'We're a purple state here in North Carolina, but it's kind of a confusing purple state, because we're electing Democrats to a lot of these statewide offices. But for federal office, we've been voting for Republicans for president since 2008, for U.S. Senate since 2008. So, if Roy Cooper or any Democrat were to win this seat, I think it's going to just reinforce just how purple the state is and that that purple dust isn't just sort of reserved for statewide offices. It also is going to fly for some of these federal offices as well,' Dr. Cooper said.
QCNEWS.COM
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