On the downside, he’s relatively unknown on the national stage.
On the upside, it’s a natural progression, he served as governor for a full term and the timing is right to move on to the next political field.
To add to your points, he’s a democrat who won the same exact elections in a state that Trump also won both times, a state that simultaneously elected republican supermajorities and a republican lieutenant governor while still electing him. A straight white southern man who is about as nonthreatening to GOP sensibilities as you can get without actually being a republican.
I think most of your points are valid except the supermajority one. This state got the Supreme Court to say that our congressional districts were too gerrymandered (which is shocking in itself), and they just kept submitting even worse ones and then the Court decided to just stick to the old maps because they kicked the can too far down the road. Then one of the few democrats that got elected here turned out to be a snake and almost immediately flipped parties because the left was “too woke”. This state honestly should be blue based off the Triangle and Charlotte but Republicans have fucked it in such a way that they basically can’t lose power in any district so we’re “purple”
Yup, I have friends all over the state and just the occasional glance over the years at what Republicans have pulled in the state has been horrifying.
A side note not related to gerrymandering - I’ve seen it thrown around that Cooper can’t do it because a quirk of NC law says the Lt. Governor becomes Acting Governor anytime the sitting Governor is out of state and the current Lt. Governor is Mark “Some People Need Killing” Robinson, but I honestly think giving him a longer leash to let more people hear him bark nonsense and hate will hurt Robinson’s chances of becoming governor. Sunshine is the best medicine and all of that (to the extent that it’s not free media advertising as it was with Trump). It’s kind of a headscratcher that Robinson was elected as Lt. Governor to begin with, the dude is a walking meme/idiot and the voters really dropped the ball on that one.
Yeah, I could see how that could be an impediment to a campaign, but practically speaking, if he is the governor:
-Bill comes in, he vetoes, the veto gets overridden, the governor didn’t matter.
So whether he nixes it or Robinson rubber stamps it, the practical end result is the same. The optics may not be as good, but he’s hit his term limit anyway and I think his supporters would rather see an NC politician on the national stage instead of him looking marginally better doing symbolic vetoes.
I too marvel that Robinson won the same election that Cooper won. I can’t fathom the voting public that would make that split choice. The districted elections were mangled to explain the state congress and the US house, but the fact that the statewide went “Tillis, Robinson, Trump, and Cooper” I just will never understand.
I hear what you’re saying but we actively cannot trust Republicans in this state. They didn’t have the votes to override a veto for the budget in 2019 so it had been going back and forth for a bit. Then on 9/11 while a bunch of the Democrats were out at various 9/11 memorials the Republicans called a surprise session, had all their people there and ready, and jammed the vote through with a “supermajority”. So you have to be prepared for them because they’re scumbags
On the downside, he’s relatively unknown on the national stage.
On the upside, it’s a natural progression, he served as governor for a full term and the timing is right to move on to the next political field.
To add to your points, he’s a democrat who won the same exact elections in a state that Trump also won both times, a state that simultaneously elected republican supermajorities and a republican lieutenant governor while still electing him. A straight white southern man who is about as nonthreatening to GOP sensibilities as you can get without actually being a republican.
I think most of your points are valid except the supermajority one. This state got the Supreme Court to say that our congressional districts were too gerrymandered (which is shocking in itself), and they just kept submitting even worse ones and then the Court decided to just stick to the old maps because they kicked the can too far down the road. Then one of the few democrats that got elected here turned out to be a snake and almost immediately flipped parties because the left was “too woke”. This state honestly should be blue based off the Triangle and Charlotte but Republicans have fucked it in such a way that they basically can’t lose power in any district so we’re “purple”
Yup, I have friends all over the state and just the occasional glance over the years at what Republicans have pulled in the state has been horrifying.
A side note not related to gerrymandering - I’ve seen it thrown around that Cooper can’t do it because a quirk of NC law says the Lt. Governor becomes Acting Governor anytime the sitting Governor is out of state and the current Lt. Governor is Mark “Some People Need Killing” Robinson, but I honestly think giving him a longer leash to let more people hear him bark nonsense and hate will hurt Robinson’s chances of becoming governor. Sunshine is the best medicine and all of that (to the extent that it’s not free media advertising as it was with Trump). It’s kind of a headscratcher that Robinson was elected as Lt. Governor to begin with, the dude is a walking meme/idiot and the voters really dropped the ball on that one.
Yeah, I could see how that could be an impediment to a campaign, but practically speaking, if he is the governor: -Bill comes in, he vetoes, the veto gets overridden, the governor didn’t matter.
So whether he nixes it or Robinson rubber stamps it, the practical end result is the same. The optics may not be as good, but he’s hit his term limit anyway and I think his supporters would rather see an NC politician on the national stage instead of him looking marginally better doing symbolic vetoes.
I too marvel that Robinson won the same election that Cooper won. I can’t fathom the voting public that would make that split choice. The districted elections were mangled to explain the state congress and the US house, but the fact that the statewide went “Tillis, Robinson, Trump, and Cooper” I just will never understand.
I hear what you’re saying but we actively cannot trust Republicans in this state. They didn’t have the votes to override a veto for the budget in 2019 so it had been going back and forth for a bit. Then on 9/11 while a bunch of the Democrats were out at various 9/11 memorials the Republicans called a surprise session, had all their people there and ready, and jammed the vote through with a “supermajority”. So you have to be prepared for them because they’re scumbags
Same story for Nebraska. Most of the population lives in Omaha or Lincoln which both lean blue, but Republicans gerrymandered the fuck out of our districts so we’re a red state. And it matters a lot more here since we’re one of two states that split our electoral college votes by congressional district. Like recently Lincoln overwhelmingly voted for a Democrat for our district in a special election, but Republicans naturally redrew the fucking maps to include counties that are fucking north of Omaha (like 120 miles away). Look at this shit: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nebraska’s+1st+Congressional+District,+NE/@41.2698636,-96.4887192,8z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x87915d2ef259455b:0x74cb97568fa3047a!8m2!3d41.5312936!4d-97.2652858!16zL20vMDl0eHky?gl=us