Roy Cooper

Roy Cooper was born on June 13, 1957, in North Carolina and grew up in Nash County, where he attended public schools and worked summers on the family farm. His mother, Beverly Cooper, was a schoolteacher; his father, Roy Cooper Jr., farmed and practiced law.⁠[1][2]

He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on what is now the Morehead-Cain Scholarship and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1979. As a student he was president of the Young Democrats and chief justice of the student Supreme Court, and was a member of the Golden Fleece, the Order of the Grail and the Chi Psi fraternity.⁠[3]

Cooper received his law degree (JD) from the UNC School of Law in 1982 and returned to Nash County to practice law.⁠[3][1]

He served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1987. In 1991 Governor Jim Martin appointed him to the North Carolina Senate, where he served until 2001 and was elected majority leader in 1997.⁠[2]

In the legislature he pushed to raise teacher pay and reduce class sizes, wrote North Carolina’s first children’s health insurance initiative and helped pass balanced budgets.⁠[1]

In 1996 the UNC General Alumni Association gave him its Distinguished Young Alumnus Award.⁠[3]

Cooper was elected Attorney General of North Carolina in 2000, was re-elected in 2004, 2008 and 2012, and served until 2017.⁠[2][1]

In 2009 the UNC School of Law gave him its Distinguished Alumnus Award.⁠[3]

Cooper was elected Governor of North Carolina on November 8, 2016, and took office on January 1, 2017. He won a second term in 2020, which ended on January 1, 2025; he was succeeded by Josh Stein.⁠[2][1]

In 2017 he gave the keynote address at UNC’s University Day, and in 2021 he received the university’s William Richardson Davie Award.⁠[3]

On March 27, 2023, Cooper signed House Bill 76, Access to Healthcare Options, expanding Medicaid in North Carolina. His office said it was expected to provide health coverage to more than 600,000 people, and the expansion was to take effect once the FY 2023–25 appropriations act was signed into law.⁠[4]

At the signing he said: “Medicaid expansion is a once-in-a-generation investment.”⁠[4]

In July 2024 Cooper was being vetted as a potential Democratic vice-presidential running mate.⁠[3]

On December 31, 2024, before his term ended on January 1, 2025, Cooper commuted the sentences of 15 people on death row to life without the possibility of parole, saying that “the death sentence imposed on these 15 people should be commuted.”⁠[5][1]

On July 28, 2025, Cooper announced in a video posted on social media that he would run for North Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Thom Tillis, who had said the previous month that he would not seek re-election. In the video he said: “I thought on it and prayed about it, and I’ve decided I want to serve as your next United States Senator.”⁠[6]

On March 3, 2026, Cooper won a six-candidate Democratic primary; the Associated Press called the race at around 8:50 p.m. that evening. The same day, former Republican National Committee chair Michael WhatleyMichael WhatleyMichael Whatley is an American Republican politician and lawyer who chaired the North Carolina Republican Party from 2019 to 2024 and the Republican National Committee from March 2024 to August 2025. He was the Republican nominee in North Carolina’s 2026 U.S. Senate election.Open the full entry won the Republican nomination.⁠[7][8]

On November 3, 2026, Cooper defeated Republican Michael Whatley in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate election for the open seat being vacated by Thom Tillis; the Associated Press called the race shortly after 8:20 p.m. EST that night.⁠[9]

Cooper for North Carolina: Official website: https://roycooper.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

X: Public account: https://x.com/RoyCooperNC (opens in a new window).⁠[10]