Roy Cooper enters the Northern Carolina Senate race for the open seat of Tilis in 2026

The former two-term Democratic village Roy Cooper is running for the Senate in Battleground North Carolina.

Cooper announced his candidature on Monday morning in the Open-Seight Race to make Republican Sen Thom Tilis a success, which announced at the end of the last month that he would not run again in the 2026 mid-term elections.

Cooper said, “I have thought on it and prayed about it, and I have decided: I am running from Northern Carolina to become the next American senator.” Social media post,

Cooper’s campaign launch is seen as a major coup for the Democratic party, as it was the top recruitment of the party in the next year’s elections, increasing his possibility of flipping a major GOP-accepted seat as he tries to bite a big bite with a 53–47 Senate majority of Republicans.

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His announcement was expected, as several news organizations including Fox News, recently it was reported that the former governors would launch a campaign in the coming days.

And in this last weekend, in the North Carolina Democrats “Unity Dinner”, Cooper teased his run during his speech.

He caught Cheers when he asked people to stand up if they were running for the office in 2026 and said, “Hey, I’m not sitting down, I am.”

Prior to its launch, the National Republican Senetorial Committee (NRSC), which is the Campaign Branch of the Senate GOP, targeted Cooper in a digital advertisement.

“Roy Cooper is a Democrat Lapdog, who vandalized President Trump to vandalize his time, who released violent illegal aliens on the streets of northern Carolina, bid biden and Kamla Harris, and focused on radical transgender ideology,” National Republic Community Communications Diarter Rodriguez made a statement on Monday.

While Cooper is not the only Democrat to declare his candidature-Poor one-term rape. Willy Nicel launched a campaign in April-she would immediately be considered a clear front-colon for the nomination of the party in Northern Carolina.

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Cooper, who was a popular governor during his eight -year steering North Carolina, was posted as a possible running mate for the then Vice President Kamla Harris last year, when the then President Joe Biden Joe Biden was successful as a 2024 presidential candidate of Democrats.

Cooper is likely to face the Republican National Committee (RNC) president Michael Whatly in next year’s general election, which will be one of the most competitive, injury and expensive Senate battles of 2026.

President Donald Trump, who is the last kingmaker in GOP politics and whose support in Republican primary is highly powerful, gave Whatly his “full and total support” on Thursday.

Trump said in a social media post, “Mike will make an incredible senator from North Carolina. Whatever he does, he is luxurious in what he does, and he was definitely great in RNC.”

And NRSC President Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina called Whatley “a strong US conservative, a champion for the North Carolina in the US Senate.

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Scott said that “Tar Heel State has supported President Trump in its three elections and has been elected Republicans for its American Senate seats for more than a decade. As our candidate with Michael, we will win it again in 2026!”

Trump called Tilis’s announcement last month that he would not seek a third six -year term in the Senate.

Tilis is a GOP critic of the President, and Trump tortured the Senator last month to not support his so -called “big, beautiful” and tax cut bills.

Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law’s daughter-in-law and a northern Carolina native, who served with Whatly as a co-chairman of RNC last year, was considered the top option to run for Trump’s Tilis seat.

But in a statement on Thursday, Lara Trump said, “After a lot of consideration and hearty discussion with my family, friends and supporters, I have decided not to pursue the United States Senate seat in Northern Carolina at this time.”

Whatly, who worked as the chairman of the Northern Carolina GOP before being elected as RNC Chair, recently said in the Fox News Digital Interview that Tar Heal’s performance in the state is going to be one of the Marki races in the country. “