SUPPLY, N.C. — A day after confirming he wouldn’t be a candidate for Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday at a public event that he’s excited that Democrats “have a lot of great options for her to choose from.”
Speaking in coastal Brunswick County with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan to celebrate federal funding for land conservation, Cooper reiterated his Monday message by saying “this was not the right time for our state or for me to potentially be on a national ticket.”
Cooper, barred by term limits from seeking reelection this year, had been among roughly a dozen potential contenders that Harris’ team was initially looking at for a vice presidential pick. He’s been a surrogate for President Joe Biden’s reelection bid and now for Harris.
“I am going to work every day to see that she is elected,” Cooper told WECT-TV. “I believe that she will win, and I look forward to this campaign because she has the right message and she is the right person for this country.”
In making his decision, Cooper confirmed Tuesday that he was concerned in part about what Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson could do if he left the state to campaign as part of the Democratic ticket. The state constitution says that “during the absence of the Governor from the State … the Lieutenant Governor shall be Acting Governor.” Robinson is running for governor this fall.
“We had concerns that he would try to seize the limelight because there would be a lot, if I were the vice presidential candidate, on him, and that would be a real distraction to the presidential campaign,” Cooper said.
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