RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Former North Carolina governor Roy Cooper is just days away from saying whether he’ll run for U.S. Senate. A representative for the two-term Democratic governor told CBS 17 that Cooper will make his intentions known in the “coming days.”
North Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat is as open race after Republican incumbent Thom Tillis chose to not run for a third term. Sen. Tillis’s announcement came after he was criticized by President Trump for choosing to not support the Big Beautiful Bill Act.
For around eighteen months, former Democratic congressman Wiley Nickel has been raising money and traveling the state, running specifically against Senator Tillis. But the game changed once Tillis bowed out. Nickel dropped out of the 2024 congressional race when his district was redrawn to heavily favor Republicans.
Democrats and Republicans are not only waiting for Roy Cooper’s decision, they’re also waiting to see whether Lara Trump will run on the Republican side. Her father-in-law, President Trump, said she is the at the top of his list of choices. Lara Trump was born and raised in North Carolina but currently lives in Florida. She would need to re-establish residency in NC in order to run for the state’s Senate seat.
If Roy Cooper and Lara Trump do get in, expect an insane amount of money to be spent. “Certainly, Roy Cooper will be able to raise a ton of money just on his past experience. But throw in a competitor with the last name of Trump and that will probably escalate the money war to an even greater level. Maybe perhaps the most expensive U.S. Senate seat contest. In terms of this midterm election cycle we could potentially be breaking the bank in terms of historic records as well,” said Catawba College political scientist Michael Bitzer.
It’s a race that Prof. Bitzer said will also include millions of outside dollars. “It’s not only the candidates that will have an excessive war chest of money to spend, but it will be outside groups because the national spotlight will be on this. It will be on a handful of other U.S. Senate races and U.S. House races, so North Carolina will yet again be prime time in the spotlight for 2026,” said Bitzer.
