President Donald Trump has found his convention scapegoat: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
WashingtonPresident Donald Trump has found his convention scapegoat: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
The Democratic executive, narrowly elected for the first time in 2016, came under fire from the Republican President on Monday morning, when Trump turned to Twitter to pressure him to guarantee Republicans will allow the convention in Charlotte to be « fully occupied » in August despite coronavirus concerns and threatened to move the convention if assurances cannot be made.
The strategy from Trump is clear, according to a Republican operative familiar with the convention process: Trump is attempting to force Cooper « to be the bad guy, » the operative said, so if changes have to be made to the convention, it can be blamed on the Democratic governor, not the Republican planning committee.
It’s a notably public spat for a Democrat who has kept a relatively low national profile for much of his career.
Cooper is a lifelong North Carolinian. Raised in Nash County — which is near Raleigh — the would-be governor received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Cooper quickly got into politics following his graduation. He was first elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1986 and was first appointed and later elected to the state’s Senate starting in 1991. He rose to be the Democratic majority leader in the state Senate.
This quick rise made Cooper a highly sought-after statewide candidate among Democrats. He won his first statewide race in 2000, for North Carolina attorney general, a role that he would hold for four terms. Cooper was recruited to run for a host of other statewide positions during his tenure but decided not to make the jump to another office until 2016, when he opted to run against sitting Republican Gov.
