WASHINGTON (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has decided not to run in the search for a vice presidential candidate for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to three people familiar with the matter, citing concerns that his Republican lieutenant governor might try to seize control if he left the state to campaign on the Democratic ticket.
Cooper confirmed in a statement Monday night that he would not run for Harris’s running mate. He said he was “honored” to be considered but “it just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ballot.” The 67-year-old governor withdrew from the race long before Harris’ vetting process began and never submitted the required materials, two of the people said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive search process.
Harris’ search is ongoing, and her teams of lawyers and political advisers are still reviewing information on a shrinking list of potential candidates.
Harris’ team was originally said to have had about a dozen possible candidates in mind, but the field has shrunk and now, according to insiders, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly are considered the favorites.
Cooper, the former chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, has been close to Harris since they were both attorneys general. His possible election was seen as a potential asset to put North Carolina – the Democrats’ only significant chance to expand their 2020 electoral map – in Harris’ hands.
Under the North Carolina Constitution, Mark Robinson, a Republican nominee to replace Cooper but whose term is narrow, will be appointed acting governor and can assume the Democrat’s powers if he leaves the state.
Cooper has expressed concerns about what Robinson might do if he were to leave the state for extended periods of time on campaign trips, according to two of the people. Cooper’s legal team, as well as some outside experts, do not believe Robinson would actually assume the powers that come with the office of governor, such as issuing executive orders. But the governor is concerned enough, one of the people familiar with the matter said, that Robinson would try to take actions that could lead to litigation and create distractions in North Carolina, one of the most politically critical states in the entire country for both the presidency and the gubernatorial race.
Robinson is an ardent social conservative who once referred to abortion as “child sacrifice.” In various church pulpits, Robinson has asserted men as the rightful leaders in church and society. He once mused that the leaders of the original birth control movement in the U.S. were “all witches.” He has referred to LGBTQ people using words like “filth” and “maggots.”
In the weeks before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Cooper appeared with Harris at campaign events in Greensboro and Fayetteville, deflecting questions about the vetting process.
“I trust she will make the right decision,” he recently told reporters in North Carolina.
Cooper, who leaves office as governor in January, has been touted by many as a potential Cabinet member of a future Democratic administration because of his party loyalty and his ability to make policy gains on health care and energy in a state where the Republican-dominated legislature is seeking to weaken him.
North Carolina has consistently voted Republican in presidential elections for more than four decades, with the exception of supporting Democrats Barack Obama and Biden in 2008.
Cooper has never lost a race for state office since the 1980s, including six statewide legislative elections since 2000. He has benefited from a booming state economy that has evolved from established textiles and tobacco to biotechnology and tidy energy, for which he and GOP lawmakers grudgingly share credit. He also regularly portrays himself as a fighter for public education and abortion rights.
Many of his legislative efforts were thwarted by a General Assembly whose Republican majority could override a veto and which stripped him of some powers even before he took office.
The New York Times first reported that Cooper had withdrawn from the proceedings, but did not specify when he made his decision or why. The Harris campaign team declined to comment.
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AP writer Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed.
