Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina is set to leave office on New Year’s Day after two terms that began with his effort to undo the state’s “bathroom ban” for transgender people and ended with him muscling through a Medicaid expansion.
Now Mr. Cooper, 67, has plenty of options. In his farewell address last week, he pointedly said, “I’m not done.”
Many Democrats hope he will run for Senate in 2026 and help the party claw back ground in the chamber; others see him as a potential presidential contender in 2028. Asked in an interview if he was weighing bids for Senate or for president, he said “it’s hard for me to believe” that he would not want to seek public office again.
A leading campaign ally first for President Biden and then for Vice President Kamala Harris — whom he knew from their days as state attorneys general — Mr. Cooper said Democratic governors must now work with President-elect Donald J. Trump because the federal government was too important for states to ignore.
Mr. Cooper spoke with The New York Times about his legacy, his future and how other Democratic lawmakers can persuade a slice of Republicans to support liberal priorities. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
When you took office in 2017, North Carolina was debating transgender rights and a bathroom ban. Why is the country still arguing over this nearly eight years later?
Well, we shouldn’t be. I think the difference is Donald Trump. I think Donald Trump has brought these issues to the forefront and made it OK to discriminate, and they’ve used these issues as a political bludgeon and that’s unfortunate.
Do you think that Republicans risk a backlash if they pursue anti-transgender legislation? We’ve seen some of those efforts already at the U.S. Capitol.
So I think that there will be enough balance next year, where we can stay away from culture-war issues and try to find common ground on economic development like we have done over the last few years. I hope that people will stand up against this kind of discrimination. We have a lot of challenges to tackle in North Carolina and in this country, and we don’t have time for culture wars.
In your farewell address, you spoke about persuading Republicans to agree to expand Medicaid. Are there lessons for Democrats in Washington or in other places where Republicans control the levers of power about how to get some of their priorities through?
Building coalitions can go a long way, particularly when those coalitions are constituents of Republican legislators.
In North Carolina, we were able to get small-business people who knew they needed a healthy work force, we were able to get rural Republican county commissioners who saw their rural hospitals in danger of closing. We were able to get tough-on-crime Republican sheriffs who knew that a lot of people in their jails needed health care and not handcuffs.
And those people who were constituents of Republican legislators demanded that they say yes to Medicaid expansion.
In your farewell speech, you said, “I’m not done.” Does that mean you are looking at running for the Senate in two years or for president in four years?
So everything is on the table for me. I’m going to take several months after I leave office, spend some time with my family and think about how I can best make a difference, and then I’ll make that decision.
I’m really not inclined any particular way at this point. I’ve intentionally put myself in a position where I don’t want to make a decision in the next few months. I’ve been in public service for three decades. I just want to take some time with my family and then make a decision.
It’s hard for me to believe that I won’t want to do something to continue adding to the woodpile, and I look forward to that.
Do you have a theory of why Kamala Harris lost?
At a basic level, she was saddled with the weight of incumbency at a time when people wanted change. They wanted something else. And that is very hard to overcome, especially with the shortened campaign runway that she had.
Do you think President Biden would have done better?
I think that this was a change election and we have seen a lot of those over the last couple of decades. I think it would’ve been very difficult for him as well, being the incumbent, and that’s not to say that he didn’t deserve re-election and she didn’t deserve election, because I believe they did.
Have you spoken to either of them since the election?
I’ve spoken to President Biden once. I’ve not spoken with Vice President Harris, but I have left her a message of encouragement and support and told her she did a great job.
What was your conversation with the president like?
Just a lot of mutual respect for each other and the work that we’ve done together over the years. We did some reminiscing and I’m just grateful for his service to our country. We often talk about Beau, with whom I served as attorney general back in the day.
I told him that history will view them very well. He’s left a strong legacy, and you know, in the heat of battle, a lot of people say things, but I think as some time goes by, people will recognize that more and more.
In your farewell address, you read a line from the North Carolina state toast, “Here’s to the Land of the Longleaf Pine.” North Carolina, the toast says, is the place where “the weak grow strong and the strong grow great.” Are Democrats the weak growing strong at this point or are they the strong growing great?
I think that they’re probably somewhere in the middle. We’re not weak and we’re not strong. We need to go to the gym, that’s for sure.
But I have a lot of hope for this country. A lot of people are deeply concerned about the next four years, as am I. But I believe that we can keep this republic, and I believe that in elections to come, that we will have success and we’re about to see.
I hope that Donald Trump will have a successful presidency. I just fear that he will not because of the kind of things that he is doing already, even before he takes office, and that’s deeply concerning.
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