Former Gov. Roy Cooper accepts teaching role. What’s that mean for a Senate run?
Former Gov. Roy Cooper is taking a teaching role at Harvard University, he told McClatchy exclusively.
The position will take Cooper away from North Carolina for eight weeks as speculation continues to grow that Cooper, a Democrat, may challenge Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, for his congressional seat.
And Cooper told McClatchy in a written statement that a run is still on the table.
“I want to keep making a difference, and together with my family, we are considering all the options, including elected office,” Cooper said. “As I weigh those options, I look forward to teaching and working with aspiring public servants who, despite everything going on in the world, still care deeply about improving people’s health and using their work to build bridges.”
Harvard fellowship
Cooper will spend eight weeks at Harvard as a Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The program allows people who served in “top-level positions in government, multilateral institutions, nonprofits, business, and journalism” to mentor and teach students who want to work in similar fields, Harvard’s website states.
His course teaches about the intersection of government and public health.
Cooper’s next options
Cooper has had a successful political career serving in both the state House and Senate, as Senate majority leader, attorney general and finally governor. After eight years as governor, Cooper was unable to run again due to the state’s term limits.
He could run again in 2028, but likely wouldn’t since he was succeeded by Gov. Josh Stein, another Democrat, who served under Cooper in the attorney general’s office and then followed him as attorney general.
Cooper and Stein have both been named as potential contenders for a presidential run in 2028.
But the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has been courting Cooper to take on Tillis in 2026.
“Thom Tillis enters the cycle as one of the most vulnerable Republican senators, and every day the backlash against him is growing. Governor Cooper would be a formidable candidate in this race,” said David Bergstein, a spokesperson for the campaign committee, in a statement to McClatchy.
Tillis’ campaign
Tillis, a high-profile senator known for working across the aisle to accomplish bipartisan legislation, has already announced his reelection campaign. His past races have broken records for most expensive Senate campaigns and this one is expected to top that with estimates above $500 million.
Tillis has been getting a lot of attention since President Donald Trump took his oath of office due to Tillis’ support for Trump’s nominees
He vowed to vote to support any of Trump’s Cabinet nominations that made it out of committee, and he has kept to that promise.
But the Republican Party has not always seen eye-to-eye with Tillis due to his more moderate stances, which has led to his censure.
Some are trying to find a candidate to challenge Tillis from the right. On social media, calls for both former Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump and former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson to run against Tillis have been constant. Robinson announced he wouldn’t. Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, has been quiet but just joined Fox News as a weekend host.
Tillis already faces one Republican primary challenger, retired businessman Andy Nilsson.
And a Democrat, former Rep. Wiley Nickel, has also indicated he will run.
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 1:11 PM.
