Roy Cooper

Roy Cooper (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. Senate to represent North Carolina. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 3, 2026. He advanced from the Democratic primary on March 3, 2026.

Cooper (Democratic Party) was the Governor of North Carolina. He assumed office on January 1, 2017. He left office on January 1, 2025. Cooper did not run for re-election to Governor of North Carolina in 2024.

Cooper was term-limited and could not run again for governor. During his final year in the position, WRAL News' Debra Morgan and Will Doran said, "Cooper’s two terms as governor have been largely defined by the antagonistic relationship between him and the Republican-led General Assembly. He won the battle over Medicaid expansion but has seen plenty of losses, too, on issues like stricter abortion laws, looser gun laws and massive corporate tax cuts — key GOP priorities that Cooper and Democratic legislators failed to stop."1 Cooper said, "When I got elected, we were in the culture war battlefield of the bathroom bill and people were leaving North Carolina. Now we have record numbers of jobs. We've been first in business for two years in a row across the country. My warning to people is that we won't continue to be first in business if we become last in education."2