North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper declined to run Search for Vice President Kamala Harris This is partly as a result of concerns that his Republican lieutenant governor would attempt to take control if he left the state to campaign on the Democratic ticket, three people conversant in the matter say.
Cooper confirmed in a press release Monday night that he wouldn’t run as 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 debate 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 a few dozen possible candidates in mind, but the sector has shrunk and now, in response to insiders, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly are considered the favorites.
Cooper, the previous chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, has been near Harris since they were each attorneys general. His possible election was seen as a possible asset to place North Carolina – the Democrats’ only significant likelihood to expand their 2020 electoral map – in Harris’ hands.
According to the Constitution of the State of North Carolina, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, who was nominated by the Republican Party to succeed the term-limited Cooper, becomes acting governor and might assume the Democrat’s powers when traveling out of state.
Cooper has expressed concerns about what Robinson might do if he were to go away the state for prolonged periods of time on campaign trips, in response to two of the people. Cooper’s legal team, in addition to some outside experts, don’t imagine Robinson would actually assume the powers that include the office of governor, similar to issuing executive orders. But the governor is anxious enough, one among the people conversant in the matter said, that Robinson would attempt to take actions that may lead to litigation and create distractions in North Carolina, probably the most politically essential states in your entire country for each the presidency and the gubernatorial race.
Robinson is a fervent social conservative who once described abortion as “child sacrifice.” In various church pulpits Robinson has asserted men because the rightful leaders in church and society. He once mused that the leaders of the unique contraception movement within the US were “all witches.” He has referred to LGBTQ individuals with 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 on the vetting process.
“I trust she will make the right decision,” he recently told reporters in North Carolina.
The New York Times initially reported that Cooper had withdrawn from the case, but didn’t detail the timing of his decision or his reasons for doing so. The Harris campaign declined to comment.
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AP author Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed.
