Here's Why Governor Roy Cooper Is On Kamala Harris's VP Shortlist

     Earlier this week, Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign confirmed that her choice for a running mate in her 2024 presidential election bid is down to three top contenders: North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. This post will highlight why Cooper is among those three. 

     The best place to start in understanding this is North Carolina itself. The state went to Donald Trump in 2020 by just 1.4 percentage points. It is the most gerrymandered in the country, with a Democratic governor for nearly the entirety of the past century: only one Republican governor has been elected to two full terms in the history of North Carolina. At the same time, it has two Republican senators and a Republican supermajority in the legislature. This year, North Carolina is home to the most significant gubernatorial race in the country, pitting North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein against Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, a Hitler-quoting far-right extremist.

     Cooper has been involved in Democratic politics for nearly half a century. His father co-chaired the campaign of Governor Jim Hunt in 1976; Hunt would win and serve as governor from 1977 to 1985 and again from 1993 to 2001. While still in law school, Cooper was appointed to the State Goals and Policy Board, and as a young man he also represented Nash High School in the Youth Legislative Assembly, served on the Interim Balance Growth Board and the North Carolina 2000 Commission, headed the UNC-Chapel Hill's Young Democrats, and served on the Rocky Mount Chamber of Commerce and the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Supervisors.

     Cooper earned his JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1982 before being elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1986; he was ranked by a nonpartisan group as the most effective freshman representative. He became the chair of the House Judiciary Committee in 1989 and, after the death of a member, was appointed to the North Carolina Senate in 1991. In 1995, he helped negotiate a bill to schedule a constitutional amendment that gave the governor veto power, and, in 1997, he became the majority leader. 

     Cooper became the attorney general of North Carolina in 2001, a position he held for 16 years. Among his achievements was creating a Campus Safety Task Force after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. Governor Cooper has served in his capacity since January 2017 and will do so until January 2025. He became co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission in 2019. His greatest achievement in a governorship marked by Republican majorities in both houses of the legislature was the expansion of Medicaid to 600,000 North Carolina residents.

     In short, Governor Cooper is by far the most experienced of the three men on this list. He has experience as a political organizer, as an effective and powerful young legislator, as the majority leader of the North Carolina Senate, and the attorney general of his home state in addition to being governor. Harris herself was the attorney general of California, so she may find Cooper's 16 years in the role to be a big draw; they worked together frequently in the 2010s and have known each other for nearly 20 years. Another qualification she asks for in a vice president is that they be ready to take over as president on day one if anything were to happen, and Cooper's experience as governor alone would likely make him fit the bill. Cooper is a quiet Southerner who has a knack for building relationships, a style not unlike that President Biden used to climb to the White House.

     Cooper is known as "Mr. November," as he has never lost an election in the 50 years he has been in politics. He is the most popular politician in North Carolina, and he could help boost Vice President Harris to win a crucial state in the November election. Additionally, unlike Shapiro and Kelly, he is at the end of his term of office, meaning him winning would not result in a vacancy. However, at 67, Cooper would be 75 at the end of two terms as vice president, making it practically impossible that he could succeed Harris as president. Additionally, he lacks the youth of Josh Shapiro and the intrigue of Mark Kelly.

     In short, he has both many positives and a few negatives, as each of the contenders in this vice presidential vetting process do. He is certainly a strong candidate, and it is clear why he has advanced to the top three. We will have our final answer within the next week. To support the North Carolina Democratic Party, click here. To support Vice President Harris, click here.