Roy Cooper: podcast appearances and interviews

Roy Asberry Cooper III, born on June 13, 1957, is an American politician and lawyer who is the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate in North Carolina for the 2026 election. He served as the 75th governor of North Carolina from 2017 to 2025 and was the state's 50th attorney general from 2001 to 2017. Cooper's political career includes service in the North Carolina General Assembly, where he represented the 72nd district in the North Carolina House of Representatives beginning in 1986, and in the North Carolina Senate from 1991 until 2001. His tenure as attorney general, spanning nearly 16 years, is the longest in the state's history, and he was re-elected multiple times. Cooper graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979 and began his career as a lawyer. He was elected governor in 2016 by narrowly defeating incumbent Pat McCrory, marking the first time a challenger unseated a sitting governor in North Carolina. He was reelected in 2020. During his governorship, despite challenges posed by a Republican-controlled legislature intent on reducing gubernatorial powers, Cooper successfully negotiated the expansion of Medicaid across the state. He now seeks to represent North Carolina in the U.S. Senate, facing Republican Michael Whatley in the upcoming general election.