Roy Cooper

Cooper was born and raised in North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979 with a B.A. and received his J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1982.[13]

Before serving elected office, Cooper was appointed by Gov. Jim Hunt (D) to the state goals and policy board. He also worked for his family law firm, Fields & Cooper, as an attorney specializing in civil suits, personal injury cases, and insurance defense.[14] He then served in the North Carolina State Legislature from 1987 until becoming attorney general in 2001. He served in that role until becoming governor in 2017.

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Campaign websiteCooper's campaign website stated the following:Lowering the Cost of Food and Groceries:The cost of food and groceries is skyrocketing in North Carolina and across the country. While farmers are getting crushed by tariffs and families are seeing prices rise at grocery stores and restaurants, big corporations and Washington DC insiders are doing all they can to squeeze every penny out of their customers. Roy Cooper is running for U.S. Senate to make stuff cost less, starting with the price of food and groceries.Support Our Farmers and Stop Chaotic Tariffs: Tariffs drive up costs on farmers who have to pass the costs along to restaurants, groceries stores and hardworking North Carolinians.Block Anti-Competitive Mergers: Strengthen antitrust enforcement in grocery retail and food processing to block corporate mergers that reduce competition and raise prices.Ban algorithms on grocery pricing to make it illegal for companies to raise the price of groceries based on a specific customer. Make it illegal for food producers to reduce competition to increase prices using digital tools to collude: Stop companies from using algorithms to coordinate prices and supply information to drive up the cost. Making Health Care Affordable:Health care costs are spiraling out of control for North Carolina families. Insurance companies are blindsiding working people with surprise bills and denied claims and forcing them to pay more for plans that cover less. Meanwhile, attacks on health care coming out of Washington are spiking premium costs and threatening to take health care away from working families. As Governor, Roy Cooper was able to bring Democrats and Republicans together to make real progress on health care, expanding Medicaid and helping hundreds of thousands of working North Carolinians get access to health insurance. He will take that same common sense bipartisanship to Washington to make health care cost less the way he’s done his entire career.Let doctors decide about health care, not insurance bureaucrats. End insurance company runarounds by allowing doctors to make coverage decisions, and reform insurance company reviews that result in denial of coverage for what a doctor says you need.Reverse cuts that leave people without health insurance or unable to afford the coverage they have. North Carolina saw the largest drop of any state in Affordable Care Act enrollment. Reinstate the ACA tax credits and reverse Medicaid cuts. This will help lower costs for everyone’s premiums, including people who get their health insurance through an employer.Require Medicare to broaden negotiations with drug makers to make more prescription medicines affordable.Put patient care first at hospitals. Strengthen oversight of harmful hospital mergers and takeovers that put profits over patients.Crack down on pharmacy benefit managers and their middlemen who put small town pharmacists out of business and pocket savings instead of passing them along to patients.Curb surprise billing. Cap out-of-network charges for non-emergency care so that staying out-of-network isn’t a business strategy for health care companies, and designate emergency ground ambulance services as an essential health benefit—98% of emergency transport is unprotected.Cap annual prescription drug out-of-pocket costs for consumers.Prevent medical debt by mandating hospitals auto enroll in charity care, lowering drug and medical costs for all.Increase enforcement on upfront pricing to make health care costs transparent. Consumers should be able to shop around for the cost of common procedures and tests. Lowering Energy + Utility Costs:North Carolina families are being squeezed by energy costs that climb higher and higher each year. Electricity bills in North Carolina have risen 22 percent since 2020 with further increases on the horizon. Roy Cooper will work to deliver common-sense solutions that cut costs and protect families from being ripped off.Make sure data centers pay the full cost of all the power they use and prevent costs from being passed on to consumers.Reduce utility costs for consumers by working to encourage large tech companies to build their own energy sources.Ban utility companies from disconnecting power during dangerous heat and cold to keep families safe during periods of extreme weather.Modernize our energy grid to lower energy costs for consumers. Too much of our grid is old and inefficient. By modernizing parts of it we can increase reliability, create good-paying jobs and lower costs for families.— Roy Cooper's campaign website (April 5, 2026)Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.

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Campaign website

Cooper’s campaign website stated the following:

Accomplishments

As governor of North Carolina, Roy has fought for good-paying jobs, strong public schools, access to quality, affordable health care, and a safer and more just North Carolina.

Roy has announced tens of thousands of new jobs across North Carolina, including in North Carolina’s rural and economically distressed counties. He has also created initiatives such as NC Job Ready, Finish Line Grants, and Hometown Strong.

Governor Cooper worked with members of both parties to repeal HB2 to fight discrimination and repair the damage to North Carolina’s economy and reputation. His leadership put North Carolina back on a path to success and opened the door for thousands of new jobs and the return of concerts, shows, and major athletic events such as the NBA All-Star Game.

He has also issued Executive Orders prohibiting workplace discrimination and establishing paid parental leave for 56,000 state employees, and launched a Clean Energy Plan to create good-paying jobs, increase the use of renewable energy, and fight climate change.

From his first day in office, Roy has fought for better teacher pay and funding for our classrooms. He has pushed the Republican legislature to go much farther than it wanted to go resulting in a 9.5% teacher raise since he took office and an improvement in the national rankings. Under his leadership, North Carolina has expanded pre-kindergarten programs and re-established the Teaching Fellows Program to recruit and support highly qualified teachers in North Carolina.

Roy has worked across party lines to combat the opioid crisis in North Carolina. He launched the state’s first Opioid Action Plan in 2017 and, as a result, opioid prescriptions have dropped by 24 percent, emergency room visits for opioid misuse have declined by 10 percent and opioid related deaths have decreased by 5 percent. He also serves on the national Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.

Roy has fought tirelessly for Medicaid expansion that would extend coverage to half a million people, including families and veterans, without additional state tax dollars. Medicaid expansion would also bring tens of thousands of jobs to North Carolina, reduce the cost of private health insurance and keep rural hospitals from closing their doors.

Together with the most diverse and qualified cabinet in the history of the state, Roy has fought for a safer and more just Carolina. He issued an Executive Order to make North Carolina the first state in the south to ban state funding to any organization that engages in conversion therapy, a scientifically dubious and dangerous practice that is harmful to the LGBTQ community.

He has also led our state through devastating hurricanes and floods, saving lives and helping to invest more than $3.2 billion in recovery to rebuild our state stronger and smarter.

In 2000, Roy was elected Attorney General. As North Carolina’s top law enforcement official, Roy protected families across the state. He cracked down on child predators, worked to increase penalties for drug dealers, and oversaw a sharp (30%) decrease in crime. Roy also prioritized consumer protection, and fought to keep utility rates low, putting predatory lenders out of business and cracking down on telemarketers.

Roy is a die-hard Carolina Hurricanes and North Carolina Tar Heels fan.[18]

—Roy Cooper’s campaign website (2020)[19]