Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced Monday he’s running for Senate in a bid to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, who was up for reelection in 2026 and recently said he’d retire at the end of his term.
In a video post, Cooper, a Democrat, portrayed his campaign as a fight to save the middle class.
“Today, for too many Americans, the middle class feels like a distant dream,” he said in the video. “Meanwhile the biggest corporations and the richest Americans have grabbed unimaginable wealth at your expense. It’s time for that to change.”
He warned that the country is now “facing a moment as fragile as any I can remember,” and said the next election would “determine if we even have a middle class in America.”
Andrew Harnik / Getty Images 
The former governor said that he’d have preferred to stay and serve in North Carolina, but felt he had to run for Senate because of the decisions D.C. politicians have made to increase the national debt and cut health care and programs to help the poor “just to give tax breaks to billionaires.”
Earlier this month, Congress passed the massive spending measure known as the “big beautiful bill,” which extends President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, increases border security, defense and energy production spending and is paid for in part by significant cuts to health care and nutrition programs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will add $3.4 trillion to federal deficits over the next 10 years and leave millions without health insurance, though Republicans and the White House dispute those forecasts.
Cooper was a two-term governor who unseated the Republican incumbent, Pat McCrory, and previously served nearly four terms as state attorney general. He was the longest-serving state attorney general in North Carolina’s history.
“I want to serve as your next United States Senator, because, even now, I still believe our best days are ahead,” Cooper said.
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley is also expected to announce a bid for Tilllis’ Senate seat in the coming days.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand welcomed Cooper to the race, saying in a joint statement that he’s “a formidable candidate who will flip North Carolina’s Senate seat, and his announcement is the latest indication that the Republicans’ Senate majority is at risk in 2026.”
