Democrat Roy Cooper running for Senate in NC; GOP majority threatened

A popular former governor is running for Senate in North Carolina

It's a big recruitment win for Democrats who are hoping to flip the seat in the 2026 midterm elections

But right now, our country's facing a moment as fragile as any I can remember

And the decisions we make in the next election will determine if we even have a middle class in America anymore

In this video, we'll explain how former Governor Roy Cooper's candidacy could decide which party controls the Senate for the second half of the Trump administration

Cooper is running for the seat being vacated by Republican Senator Tom Tillis

who announced he'll retire at the end of his term. Democrats need to flip four seats to gain control of the Senate in 2026

But that will be tough because they're defending in states Donald Trump won

including Georgia and Michigan. Trump also won North Carolina, where Cooper is considered the favorite to win the Democratic primary

He's likely to face Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Waitley, who was endorsed by Trump and is the state's former GOP chairman

In his announcement, Cooper echoed messages that so far have not worked for the Democratic Party

He said Republicans are taking away health care for the lower and middle class to give tax breaks to the wealthy Democrats have been spreading that message across the country Despite that a new Wall Street Journal poll found 63 of voters have

an unfavorable opinion of the party, the worst rating in 35 years. Cooper began his announcement

by speaking about an issue that hurt Democrats in 2024, the cost of living

It wasn't always this hard because being in the middle class meant something

You could afford a home. Your kids went to good schools. And I know that today, for too many Americans, the middle class feels like a distant dream

The race is expected to be very close and very expensive, potentially hundreds of millions of dollars

But Cooper is used to being in close races. He was first elected governor in 2016 after defeating incumbent Republican Pat McCrory by 277 votes, less than a quarter of a percent

In 2020, he won re-election by 4.5 percent, but Republicans had a strong showing that night

and maintained control of the state legislature. Cooper had to work with Republican legislatures for both his terms as governor

He's now hoping to flip that script, serve in a Democratic-controlled Congress with a

Republican executive. I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Arrow News. For more reporting, download the SAN app