Roy Cooper is the Democratic candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina in 2026, running to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis in one of the most closely watched contests in the country. A former two-term Governor, Cooper has built his campaign around lowering costs for working families, from groceries and health care to housing and child care.

Cooper was born and raised in Nash County, North Carolina, where he attended public schools and worked summers on his family's farm. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then practiced law for 18 years in Rocky Mount, representing everyday people and small businesses. He and his wife, Kristin, raised three daughters there; his mother's career as a public-school teacher helped shape his lifelong commitment to public education.

Cooper's public service began in the North Carolina legislature, where he worked to raise teacher pay and wrote the state's first children's health insurance initiative. He then served four terms as Attorney General, taking on scammers and predatory lenders and helping return billions of dollars to North Carolinians. As Governor from 2017 to 2025, he struck a bipartisan deal to expand Medicaid to more than 650,000 people and worked with both parties to pass hundreds of bills. He was elected governor twice — in 2016 and 2020 — both years Donald Trump carried North Carolina — and has never lost an election.