(NewsNation) — Following President Joe Biden’s stepping out of the presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats are looking into potential vice presidents to join the ticket as recent polling shows she has enough delegate support to secure the nomination.
One of the top names is North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper. Cooper was elected in 2016 and 2020, both years where the state voted for former President Donald Trump. He is term-limited and ineligible to run for governor again.
Cooper’s political history
Cooper was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1986 and then appointed a member of the North Carolina Senate from 1991 to 2001.
He was elected the state’s attorney general in 2000 and reelected in 2004, 2008 and 2012, serving nearly 16 years.
Cooper was elected governor in 2016 in a close race with incumbent Republican Pat McCrory. Most of his time as governor has been spent playing defense against a Republican-controlled state General Assembly.
Cooper’s political views
As governor of North Carolina, Cooper has prioritized funding schools, increasing health care coverage and expanding infrastructure. Here’s where he stands on the issues:
- Says that we don’t need more tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy
- Previously vetoed versions of a bill that ordered North Carolina sheriffs to comply with federal immigration requests
- Has pledged to protect abortion rights in North Carolina
- Vetoed bills aimed at banning gender-affirming health care for minors, restricting transgender participation in school sports and limiting classroom instruction about gender identity and sexuality
- Launched the state’s first Opioid Action Plan
Cooper’s relationship with Biden, Harris
Following Biden’s announcement he’d be leaving the race, Cooper praised him for stepping aside and endorsed Harris as the Democratic Party’s nominee.
Cooper and Harris both served as attorney general of their respective states from 2011 to 2017, when Cooper was elected governor and Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate, and the two got to know each other.
Cooper’s controversies
Cooper has spent much of his time as governor fighting a Republican supermajority. In his first two years, he vetoed 28 bills, and Republicans overrode 23 of them. In 2023, they overrode all 19 of his vetoes, and so far in 2024, he has vetoed five bills.
An appeals court ruled in April that Cooper’s orders during COVID-19 to keep bars closed when restaurants were open violated the state constitution.
Cooper’s personal life
Cooper grew up in Nash County, North Carolina, and later earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He married his wife, Kristin, a lawyer from Oklahoma City, in 1992, and all three of their daughters also attended the University of North Carolina.