North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (Democrat) said Sunday that if Vice President Harris wins North Carolina in this November's general election, she “will become the next president of the United States.”
Cooper said Margaret Brennan, CBS News He said he was confident that Vice President Harris would win the support of North Carolina voters, and praised her for her frequent visits to the state during her term in office.
“There's no question about it,” Cooper said on “Face the Nation” when asked whether the average North Carolinian will be persuaded or will wait to see what happens on the debate stage this week.
“It's a close race here in North Carolina. It always has been. This was the closest Biden-Harris lost in 2020, by just 1.3 percentage points,” Cooper continued. “So the fact that Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, has visited North Carolina 17 times shows that she cares about our state. She knows we're at stake.”
“And she knows that if she wins North Carolina she will be the next president of the United States, because Trump has no other choice,” he added, referring to former president and Republican nominee Trump.
Trump Winner North Carolina won its 15 electoral votes in the 2020 election, beating President Biden by less than 100,000 votes, a margin of 1.3 percentage points. The state has voted Democrat only once since 1980, when former President Barack Obama narrowly defeated the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), 49.7 percent to 49.4 percent.
Less than two weeks ago, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved the state from “Republican-leaning” to “close” in favor of Harris.
But Trump still leads Harris by 0.3 points, 48.6% to 48.3%, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ average of state polls.
Cooper, who was considered a leading contender for the Democratic vice presidential nomination, said his state's polling numbers would improve as North Carolinians begin to learn more about Harris' campaign and her plans to cut costs and support the middle class.
“I think that at the end of the day, if we continue to educate the American people and the people here in the state of North Carolina that Kamala Harris has an economic plan that lowers the cost of living for ordinary people, helps families thrive and protects women's reproductive freedom, then that's going to make a difference here,” Cooper said.
