North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper Refused to Consider His Vice Presidential Candidate Opposing Kamala Harris

WASHINGTON — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has decided not to run against Kamala Harris as vice presidential candidate, in part because of concerns that his Republican lieutenant governor would try to seize control if he left the state to campaign as part of the Democratic ticket, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Cooper confirmed in a statement Monday evening that he would not be Harris’ running mate, saying he was “honored” to be considered but “it just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on the national ticket.” The governor, 67, withdrew from the race well before Harris’ vetting process began and never submitted the required materials, according to two of the people. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive search process.

Harris’ search is ongoing, with her teams of lawyers and political assistants still vetting information on an increasingly narrow list of potential candidates.

Harris’ team was initially said to be considering about a dozen potential candidates, but the field has narrowed and now Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly are considered the favorites, according to the people.

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Cooper, a former chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, has been close to Harris since they both served as state attorneys general. His potential selection was seen as a possible asset in flipping North Carolina — Democrats’ only significant opportunity to expand their 2020 map — to Harris.

Under the state constitution, North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, who is the Republican Party’s candidate to succeed Cooper, who is term-limited, becomes acting governor and can suppose a Democrat’s privileges when traveling out of state.

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Cooper, according to two people, expressed concern about what Robinson might do if he left the state for a large-scale campaign trip. Cooper’s legal team, as well as some outside experts, do not believe Robinson would actually assume the powers that come with being governor, such as issuing executive orders. But the governor was concerned enough, one person familiar with the matter said, that Robinson would try to take action that could create litigation and distraction in North Carolina, one of the most critical political states in the country for both the presidency and the gubernatorial race.

Robinson is a staunch social conservative who once called abortion “baby sacrifice.” In various church pulpits, Robinson has argued that men are the rightful leaders in church and society. He once mused that the leaders of the original birth control movement in the U.S. were “witches, all of them.” He has referred to LGBTQ people with words like “filth” and “worms.”

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In the weeks leading up to President Joe Biden’s exit from the race, Cooper appeared with Harris at campaign events in Greensboro and Fayetteville. He deflected questions about the vetting process.

“I trust him to make the right decision,” he recently told reporters in North Carolina.

Cooper, who is stepping down as governor in January, had been widely considered a potential Cabinet member in a future Democratic administration because of his party loyalty and ability to win victories on health care and energy in a state where the Republican-dominated legislature is bent on undermining his position.

North Carolina has consistently voted for Republican presidential candidates for more than four decades, with the exception of supporting Democrats Barack Obama and Biden in 2008.

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Cooper has never lost a statewide election since the 1980s, including six statewide general elections since 2000. He has benefited from a booming state economy that has shifted from conventional textiles and tobacco to biotechnology and tidy energy, for which he and GOP lawmakers are reluctant to share credit. He also routinely presents himself as a crusader for public education and abortion rights.

Many of his legislative efforts were thwarted by a veto-proof Republican majority in the General Assembly that curtailed some of his powers even before he took office.

The New York Times first reported that Cooper had withdrawn from the case, but did not provide details about when or why he made the decision. Harris’ campaign declined to comment.