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North Carolina governor Roy Cooper has withdrawn his name from consideration to be Kamala Harris’s running mate, winnowing the field of prominent Democrats vying to be her pick for vice-president.
Cooper said in a brief statement posted to social media on Monday that while he “strongly” supported Harris’s campaign for president, it “wasn’t the right time” for him to be on the Democratic ticket for the White House.
“I know she’s going to win and I was honoured to be considered for this role,” Cooper said. “This just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket.”
Cooper provided no further detail about the timing or reasoning for his decision. Representatives for Cooper and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Harris — the current vice-president who last week became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president just one day after Joe Biden suspended his re-election bid — is under pressure to select a running mate ahead of a virtual roll call of party delegates next week and the Democratic National Convention in mid-August, where she is expected to officially accept her party’s nomination for president.
The Harris campaign is reportedly vetting several candidates, namely multiple Democratic governors — including Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Minnesota’s Tim Walz — as well as US senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary.
Several of the possible vice-presidential picks have hit the campaign trail to support Harris in recent days. On Monday, Shapiro and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer rallied more than 1,000 supporters in Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia suburbs to drum up enthusiasm for Harris’s bid to defeat Donald Trump.
Until Monday, Cooper, who has served as governor of North Carolina since 2007, had been considered by many to be a frontrunner to be Harris’s running mate.
Like Harris, Cooper previously served as a state attorney-general. He has also campaigned with Harris several times in recent months in North Carolina, which has emerged as a key battleground state in the race for the White House.
Cooper had long been favoured by Democratic party operatives and influential donors for his ability to win over moderate and centrist voters in a swing state.
He was elected governor of North Carolina in 2016 and re-elected in 2020, even as Trump carried the state against both Hillary Clinton and Biden. Cooper outperformed Biden by six points on the 2020 ballot.
But Cooper, who is term limited and unable to run for re-election as governor of North Carolina, has also been widely seen as a possible future candidate for US senate in his home state.
Cooper made no mention of the Senate in his statement.