As political insiders scramble to divine how President Joe Biden’s last-minute decision not to seek reelection this year will shake up the presidential race, North Carolina’s top Democratic and Republican bosses are painting very different pictures of what it means.

North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Jason Simmons said that nothing will change if Democrats nominate Vice President Kamala Harris to take over for Biden in the presidential race. Republicans can tie all of the attacks they had planned to use against Biden to Harris, he said, since she’s been there for every minute of his administration. And she should face additional scrutiny, he added, over whether she had conspired to cover up any issues on Biden’s part.

“The Democrat Party is still without its candidate, and in complete disarray,” Simmons told WRAL News. “Whoever their candidate is, they’re still going to have to address — especially if it’s Kamala Harris, who has been an enabler for Joe Biden, and really, we look at what Joe Biden has done the last three to four years, it’s been destructive both on our economy as well as our society — they’re gonna have to address those questions.”

North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Anderson Clayton, however, said a Harris nomination would change everything. It’s not just the record-setting donations of $81 million in a single day that poured in to Democratic coffers following Biden’s announcement that he was endorsing Harris in his stead, but also her potential to inspire voters who may not have been as enthused by Biden as they now are by Harris.

“She’s always been the champion of issues that young people right now — that my generation — is seeing in this country,” Clayton told WRAL News, listing abortion rights and LGBTQ rights as two key examples of that. She said Harris championed those issues in her previous roles as a U.S. senator and California attorney general, even before becoming vice president.

“Young voters see a president, or the potential of a president, that has always been able to actually get [things] done,” Clayton added.

Ever since Barack Obama in 2008 became the only Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina since Jimmy Carter, local Democrats have been chasing — with little success — the “Obama coalition” of young people and rural Black voters who came to the polls in force in 2008 but have not voted in as large numbers since then. Harris likely offers Democrats a better shot at energizing those voters than Biden or 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton, each of whom lost North Carolina to former president Donald Trump, who’s now running for the third straight election.

At 59, Harris is almost two full decades younger than Trump. With Biden out, the 78-year-old Trump is now the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history. Harris would also be the first Black woman ever nominated for president by a major party, and just the second Black major party nominee ever, after Obama.

Clayton noted the explosion of social media memes — many of them coconut-themed, after a viral video of a Harris speech referencing a coconut tree that Republicans unearthed for an attack ad, but which Democrats have since adopted as pro-Harris symbolism. And she noted pop stars from multiple generations are now backing Harris to their fans, from Beyonce to Charlie XCX.

“I think that the energy has shifted in a generous direction towards the vice president,” Clayton said. “… She’s tapping into something that’s in the zeitgeist right now. It’s connecting politics and pop culture.”

Simmons and the GOP are more interested in connecting Harris with the border and the Biden administration’s immigration policy — which polls show is not only the main issue for Republicans this year, but also a concern of many independent and Democratic voters.

Early in his presidency, Biden put Harris in charge of working with Central American leaders to address root causes of immigration from their countries into the U.S. She wasn’t in charge of the border itself, or U.S. immigration policy, but Republicans don’t plan on voters making that distinction as the election heats up.

“She is a failed vice president — an individual who, anything that she’s been given responsibility for, has floundered,” Simmons said. “You look at the southern border, it’s in worse shape than when she was put in as, quote-unquote, the ‘czar’ of the border.”

Clayton dismissed GOP criticism of Harris and Biden’s record on immigration, accusing Republicans in Congress of cynically blocking immigration reforms Biden had proposed. She said the GOP would prefer immigration policy to remain broken so they can use it as a political issue.

But while Democrats feel better about Harris’s chances to energize younger voters, there’s still the question of how — or whether — Democrats can reach the rural Black voters who helped elevate Obama but have had below-average turnout rates otherwise. Clayton acknowledged in the interview that Democrats have not done enough to reach out to those communities. A 26-year-old from rural Person County, Clayton took over the state Democratic Party last year and said the party is putting a new focus on rural outreach. Of the 20 majority-minority counties in North Carolina, she said, 18 are rural.

“We don’t have people that are messengers in these communities, that feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves right now,” Clayton said. “… And so a lot of those Democrats, they felt like they were siloed off. They felt like they were not being reached out to and that their voices weren’t being heard.”

Clayton added that she’s told Harris’s staff that she needs to get out in rural North Carolina herself, shaking hands and showing people they haven’t been forgotten. But Republicans think they have a shot at reaching many of those rural voters, too — even those who aren’t white.

The Republican National Committee this past week kicked off with the Pledge of Allegiance delivered by a rural North Carolinian, state Rep. Jarrod Lowery, who’s a member of the Lumbee Tribe. And the first-ever Black nominee for governor in North Carolina didn’t come from the Democratic Party but rather from the GOP, this year, in Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.

Nearly 90% of Republican voters in North Carolina are white, and comparable percentages of Black voters support Democrats.

But while Clayton and the Democrats try to regain lost ground in rural areas, Simmons said the GOP is trying to increase its appeal “not just to our average voters, but to every voter — making sure that our Black and Hispanic communities, or Asian communities, understand that there is a strong framework and a foundation here at the Republican Party that will benefit them.”

The North Carolina Museum of History has announced that Maria Vann will now lead the three North Carolina Maritime Museums: the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort, and the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport.

Vann is a historian and museum professional from New York who serves as deputy director of the North Carolina Museum of History. She holds an MA in museum studies and a BS in history. She has directed several museums, including the East Hampton Historical Society, the Maritime Museum at Battleship Cove in Massachusetts, and the Iroquois Indian Museum. Vann previously served as an adjunct history professor at the State University of New York at Oneonta and as education programs manager at the New York State Historical Association.

Vann currently serves as a board member of the Small Museum Association. Her interests include colonial Dutch and maritime history and travel.

Vann said, “I am thrilled to continue working permanently with the staff and the support organizations at the three NC maritime museums. The stories they share through exhibits and programs illuminate the fascinating history of North Carolina and the globe, utilizing the unique lens of maritime culture so they can tell stories in a provocative and exciting way. It is an honor to be appointed to this role.”

For more details, go to ncmuseumofhistory.org.

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Gov. Roy Cooper’s job firing up crowds for the Democratic presidential ticket this year would appear to be at odds with the subdued demeanor of a longtime North Carolina office holder not given to verbal flourishes.

He got audiences going in a call-and-response, with the crowd shouting “No” when Cooper asked if they wanted a second Donald Trump term. 

Cooper’s measured responses to questions Monday morning on whether he would consider becoming Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate now that President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race was the Cooper that North Carolinians are much more used to hearing.

“I appreciate people talking about me, but I think the focus right now needs to be on her this week,” Cooper said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “She needs to concentrate on making sure that she secures this nomination and gets this campaign ready to go.”

After Biden bowed out on Sunday, Cooper thanked Biden, calling him “among our nation’s finest presidents,” on X, formerly Twitter, and endorsed Harris. 

Cooper, 67, is serving his second term as governor and cannot run for a third. Even before Biden announced Sunday he was leaving the race, there was speculation about a role for Cooper in the second term of a Biden administration. 

Cooper’s steady climb through North Carolina’s political ranks and his position as a Democratic governor in a swing state has pundits measuring his potential as Harris’ running mate.  US Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear are also mentioned as potential vice presidential candidates who could join Harris on the ticket. 

Keeping healthcare and public schools in the forefront

Introducing Biden and Harris at North Carolina rallies gave Cooper a chance to tout Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, a premier accomplishment of his administration. He announced at a news conference this month that more than 500,000 residents had enrolled in the expanded program. At campaign rallies, he paints the image of Trump ripping a health insurance card out of someone’s hand. 

Cooper started fighting for Medicaid expansion even before he officially took office after defeating one-term Republican Pat McCrory in 2016. Leading Republicans in the legislature dismissed all calls for Medicaid expansion for years. Cooper kept health care and Medicaid expansion at the forefront, even though the state was not able to offer more people health insurance under Medicaid expansion without the GOP-controlled legislature’s approval. 

Republicans reconsidered after the American Rescue Plan Biden signed in 2021 included financial incentives for states that had not yet expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. 

Republicans put Medicaid expansion in the budget they passed last year. Cooper allowed the budget to become law without his signature because it included Medicaid expansion — even though it was stuffed with items he did not want such as an expansion of private school vouchers.

Cooper has repeatedly denounced private school vouchers and built his education agenda on increasing spending on public education and teacher raises. But his tenure as governor in large part has been shaped by issues involving health, health insurance, and disputes with Republicans in the legislature over policy priorities. 

Tested by the COVID pandemic

The 2020 campaign for governor revolved largely around his responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cooper clashed with Republican legislators over health-related business closures and the duration of public school closures. 

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest challenged Cooper with a campaign that leaned heavily on lifting COVID restrictions and opening public schools. Forest sued over some of Cooper’s COVID executive orders, but was shut down in court. Forest went on to lose the governor’s race to Cooper by more than four percentage points. 

Bar owners had more success challenging Cooper’s COVID rules. They sued over Cooper’s decision to keep bars closed while allowing restaurants to open with capacity limits a few months into the pandemic. The state Court of Appeals ruled last April that Cooper had violated bar owners’ rights. 

Nationally, North Carolina’s handling of the pandemic was praised by the Biden administration. Biden appointed Dr. Mandy Cohen, who was  Cooper’s first Health and Human Services secretary, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A weak office needed a negotiator

The governor’s office in North Carolina was designed to be weak. North Carolina governors don’t have a line-item veto and cannot veto redistricting bills. 

Republicans have controlled the legislature for Cooper’s entire tenure as governor. In the years Republicans did not have supermajorities in the House and Senate — and were not able to override his vetoes — Cooper was able to push for negotiations on issues and stifle bills he opposed. 

Convincing Democrats to uphold his vetoes meant Cooper “was able to participate in the discussion,” said state Senate Democratic leader Dan Blue of Raleigh. 

Cooper had “a profound impact on where the state was going,” Blue said. “He moderated the Republicans’ hardline positions on multiple occasions.”

Cooper’s supporters note that he has never lost a race from the time he won a House seat in 1986 after beating a 12-term Democratic incumbent. Cooper repeatedly won statewide office while Democratic presidential candidates most often fell short. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina was Barack Obama in 2008. 

Cooper grew up on a tobacco farm in Nash County. His mother was a teacher and his father a lawyer. 

He attended UNC Chapel Hill on a Morehead Scholarship and received his law degree from UNC.

He is a devoted fan of the UNC Tar Heels and Carolina Hurricanes NHL team. 

A Charlotte Observer article from 1988 described Cooper as a “star of the legislative basketball team” who kept a low profile in his first term. 

“I would like to serve between three and five terms in the legislature,” the article quotes Cooper saying. “During that time I would have been able to make an impact and accomplish things I want to accomplish.

“And 15 years from now I think I could look to some other office or make a living practicing law.”

After a stint in the state House, Cooper was appointed to a Senate seat in 1991, where he rose to become the chamber’s Majority Leader. 

He won the first of four successful races for state Attorney General in 2000. 

He rejected calls to run for governor in 2008, and resisted a push for him to challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole that year. 

North Carolina Democrats are wondering whether Cooper’s career ladder leads to the vice presidency.

After they voted to endorse Harris for president on Sunday, state party chair Anderson Clayton reported that North Carolina delegates to the Democratic National Convention “are enthusiastically supportive of Gov. Cooper becoming the nominee for our vice president as well.”