{"id":45362,"date":"2025-07-27T18:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T23:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=45362"},"modified":"2025-07-27T22:46:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T03:46:00","slug":"roy-cooper-hints-at-2026-senate-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=45362","title":{"rendered":"Roy Cooper hints at 2026 Senate run"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Former North Carolina Gov.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/roy-cooper\/\"><u>Roy Cooper\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D) hinted over the weekend that he plans to run for the open U.S. Senate seat in his state during the 2026 election cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheTomGeorge\/status\/1949316293993119894\"><u>popular governor spoke<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;at the North Carolina Democratic Party\u2019s annual \u201cUnity Dinner\u201d on Saturday night, amid reports that he plans to launch a Senate bid soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cEverybody who\u2019s planning to run for office next year, please stand up,\u201d Cooper asked the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He then added: \u201cI\u2019m not sitting down, am I?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The crowd cheered and chanted, \u201cRun, Roy, run,\u201d according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whqr.org\/2025-07-26\/im-not-sitting-down-am-i-at-democratic-party-fundraiser-cooper-hints-at-u-s-senate-run\"><u>local reports<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Many Democrats have been hoping Cooper would enter the race, especially as Sen.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/thom-tillis\/\"><u>Thom Tillis\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-N.C.) announced he would not run for reelection after bucking the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/5375176-thom-tillis-gop-senate-megabill-opposition\/\"><u>president and voting against<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;his massive tax and spending bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The event comes shortly after&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/5421275-wiley-nickel-north-carolina-senate\/\"><u>local reporting surfaced<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;that former Rep.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/wiley-nickel\/\"><u>Wiley Nickel\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-N.C.), who launched his campaign for Senate in April, is now mulling whether to suspend his bid and instead run for an open district attorney position in Wake County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Republican National Committee Chair&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/michael-whatley\/\"><u>Michael Whatley\u2002<\/u><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/5417701-whatley-trump-backed-north-carolina\/\"><u>is running on the GOP side<\/u><\/a>, with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/donald-trump\/\"><u>President Trump\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>endorsement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/5422813-cooper-teases-north-carolina-senate-run\/\">thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former North Carolina Gov.&nbsp;Roy Cooper\u2002(D) hinted over the weekend that he plans to run for the open U.S. Senate seat in his state during the 2026 election cycle. The&nbsp;popular governor spoke&nbsp;at the North Carolina Democratic Party\u2019s annual \u201cUnity Dinner\u201d on Saturday night, amid reports that he plans to launch a Senate bid soon. \u201cEverybody who\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":45363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32409,1637,6717,3506],"class_list":["post-45362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-32409","tag-campaign","tag-roy-cooper","tag-senator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45364,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45362\/revisions\/45364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}