NC Gov. Roy Cooper, facing end of term, ups his profile as Biden surrogate

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper joined former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a campaign call Tuesday for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, raising his profile as a surrogate for their 2024 reelection effort — and raising questions about Cooper’s plans for after his term expires.

The call focused on former President Donald Trump’s recent social media statement about trying again to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump’s repeal attempt in 2017 fell short by a single vote in the Senate.

“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare,” Trump wrote Saturday. “I’m seriously looking at alternatives.”

While it’s unclear whether Senate Republicans have much interest in revisiting the issue, Democrats see it as a potential messaging strategy — especially as the Biden campaign seeks to strengthen his profile amid sagging approval ratings.

Biden's approval rating has sunk to 40% — its lowest level — as voters disapprove of his handling of foreign policy, according to a national NBC News poll released Nov. 19.

Pelosi called the ACA a “kitchen-table issue to the nth degree” that voters understand.

“When [Trump] says he's going after healthcare, believe him, because he's done it before. I was there in 2017,” Pelosi said on the call Tuesday.

“In 2024, the Affordable Care Act and all of its transformational benefits will be on the ballot,” she continued.

Cooper credited the ACA — and a sizable sweetener from the Biden administration — for making Medicaid expansion possible in North Carolina starting Friday. He added that about 1.8 million people in the state already benefit from the ACA’s changes to health insurance.

“Six hundred thousand more North Carolinians are about to get healthcare coverage beginning Friday. We're excited about that,” Cooper said. “Now, Donald Trump wants to blow it all up without a serious alternative, taking healthcare away from millions of people.”

“It is time to call this out as a campaign issue that resonates across America, even in red states, because it matters to everyday Americans,” Cooper said.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to WRAL’s request for comment on the Democrats’ claims.

Cooper as surrogate

When WRAL News asked Cooper why he was headlining the campaign call, Cooper cited the state’s upcoming Medicaid expansion, but then went further.

“Our very democracy is at stake here,” Cooper said. “Donald Trump is clearly speaking in autocratic tones, and he has a lot of followers who prefer an autocracy over a democracy as long as their guy’s in power. It's time for people to stand up across the country and make people understand what a stark choice this is to preserve our democracy.”

Cooper has appeared before as a surrogate for the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign, speaking at the South Carolina Democratic Convention in April on the campaign’s behalf. He’s also been quoted in news stories about Biden’s chances in the state.

But Tuesday’s campaign call might have been Cooper’s highest-profile surrogate appearance yet.

Because North Carolina voters have largely leaned Republican at the federal level for the past few decades, elected Democrats here have generally maintained some distance from national Democratic figures.

Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper says the governor, who can’t run again in 2024 due to term limits, has little to lose from a closer relationship.

“He's told us that he's probably not done,” he told WRAL News. “I don't think he is going to go just surfing every weekend and kind of call it a day. I think this is somebody who has a political future, that there's a possibility of him being in a Biden administration.”

He added that the governor is also a logical choice for a Biden surrogate in what could be a very tough campaign https://www.wral.com/story/how-we-attack-the-wealth-divide-cooper-s-3-billion-push-for-clean-energy-jobs/21143382/year.

“Roy Cooper, along with Andy Beshear in Kentucky, is sort of looked at as a model for how Democrats can win in places that might not seem likely on a map,” he said. “I'd expect we're going to see more appearances from Roy Cooper over the next few months, not fewer.”

Sadie Weiner, the governor’s director of external affairs, declined to say whether the governor is hoping for a position in the next Biden administration. Asked about his motivations, Weiner said the governor is focused on “trying to get the president reelected and help stop the nightmare of another Trump presidency.”

Earlier this month, Cooper declined to discuss his plans for after the 2024 elections. “I don't even think about that,” he told WRAL.