Gov. Cooper as possible VP pick, the down ballot affect

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Gov. Roy Cooper remains in the spotlight across the country. By all accounts, he is on the shortlist to be Kamala Harris’ vice president. What would that mean for Democrats in a state that Donald Trump has carried twice?

On the North Carolina ballot this year, there are several candidates running for statewide office who are considered MAGA Republicans.  Lt. Governor Mark Robinson for governor, Rep. Dan Bishop for attorney general, and Michelle Morrow for state school superintendent.

Rep. Wiley Nickel believes if Harris picks Cooper as her running mate, it will make the path to victory easier for Democrats in North Carolina.

“If you’re Dan Bishop or you’re Mark Robinson, you are quaking in your boots right now at the prospect of having Roy Cooper on the ballot in this election cycle,” Nickel said. “It would be a huge help for all of our candidates in North Carolina to be running with Gov. Roy Cooper.”

Mac McCorkle, a professor of the practice at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, said, “If Cooper’s on the ballot in North Carolina, there’s going to be way more consciousness of Mark Robinson. There’s going to be more consciousness for Michelle Morrow. Right now, as far as I can tell, that [superintendent] race between Michelle Morrow and Moe Green is tight.”

Part of McCorkle’s reasoning is that Cooper remains popular. Since first running for the state legislature in the mid 1980’s, Cooper has never lost a race, including statewide races where Republican presidential candidates carried North Carolina.

The boost if Cooper is on the Democratic presidential ticket may be incremental, but significant due to the projected closeness of these races. “We’re talking increments [of] one to three points, but in North Carolina that matters,” McCorkle said.

Some incumbents, like Republican agriculture commissioner Steve Troxler have managed to get votes from not only Republicans, but enough independents and Democrats to win. McCorkle said these types of candidates may not be impacted as much as others.

“It really helps Josh Stein [in the governor’s race],” he said. “As you go down the ticket, that influence might diminish because people just might revert to voting for R&D generically, but it should help the Democratic ticket almost all the way down the line at least a little bit.”

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