Roy Cooper enters North Carolina Senate race for Tillis’ open seat in 2026

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.”

Ahead of his launch, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, targeted Cooper in a digital ad.

“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,” National Republican Senatorial Commitee communications director Joanna Rodriguez charged in a statement Monday morning.

While Cooper isn’t the only Democrat to announce their candidacy – former one-term Rep. Wiley Nickel launched a campaign in April – he will instantly be considered the clear front-runner for the party’s nomination in North Carolina.

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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.”