Candidate Spotlight: Roy Cooper
It was March 29, 2016, less than one week after North Carolina’s then-governor, Pat McCrory, had signed HB 2 into law. That bill required transgender students and adults in public buildings to use restrooms corresponding to the gender assigned to them at birth. As North Carolina’s attorney general for eight years, Roy Cooper had defended dozens of other laws in the courts. But not this time.
Roy Cooper announced that he and his staff would not defend HB 2 because it was blatantly unconstitutional. That November, Cooper campaigned against Gov. McCrory and became governor of North Carolina. A little more than one year later, he signed a bill that repealed HB 2, even though that compromise bill fell short of a full repeal of the anti-LGBTQ restrictions contained in the 2016 legislation.
Roy Cooper served eight years as governor, retiring in 2024 because of the term limits on that position. As governor, he created hundreds of thousands of jobs for North Carolinians. He got a bipartisan agreement to expand Medicaid in that state, and he enacted a plan to incentivize hospitals to relieve more than $4 billion of existing medical debt. He focused on improving public education, tackling the opioid crisis, revitalizing rural communities, and ensuring that North Carolinians have the training they need for higher-skill jobs.
Cooper has won every election in which he has run, as a state legislator, attorney general and governor. Now, he has announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in November 2026. If elected, he would replace Republican Thom Tillis and could help to flip control of the Senate to Democrats. That would ensure that the Senate would not confirm judges and U.S. Supreme Court justices nominated by President Trump.
Roy Cooper is currently leading in the polls against his probable opponent, Republican Michael Whatley. Cooper has begun running campaign advertisements that make a populist appeal: “The biggest corporations and the richest Americans have grabbed unimaginable wealth at your expense.” This will be a hotly contested election.
The Stand Up for Workers PAC will likely endorse Gov. Cooper in his election campaign, as part of our efforts to regain control of both houses of Congress in 2026. If Democrats regain control of the Senate, we can block Trump’s efforts to put more loyalists on the federal bench, including on the Supreme Court. This race is central to our efforts to stop Trump’s war on American workers.
Written By Barry Roseman, Stand Up For Workers Board Member & Treasurer
