Press Release
Reproductive Freedom for All Celebrates Roy Cooper’s Victory in North Carolina Primary Race for U.S. Senate
Today, Reproductive Freedom for All-endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, former Governor Roy Cooper, won his primary race and secured the Democratic nomination for the general election in November. Cooper will face Trump-endorsed Republican and anti-abortion extremist Michael Whatley.
Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:
“Governor Roy Cooper has spent his career fighting for North Carolinians’ health care and reproductive freedom, and he’ll do the same in the U.S. Senate. His opponent celebrated the fall of Roe v. Wade and is backed by the same extremists working to ban abortion nationwide. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and the choice couldn’t be clearer: This race will determine whether North Carolina sends a proven champion to Washington or another vote for a national abortion ban. Reproductive Freedom for All will do everything in our power to elect Roy Cooper in November and restore the fundamental freedoms Trump and his allies ripped away.”
Cooper was part of Reproductive Freedom for All’s first slate of frontline U.S. Senate endorsements in the 2026 midterm cycle. As governor, Cooper expanded Medicaid to more than 690,000 North Carolinians and stood as the last line of defense against a Republican legislature determined to restrict abortion access. He vetoed the state GOP’s extreme abortion ban, signed an executive order to protect North Carolina providers and patients from out-of-state attacks, and used every tool at his disposal to safeguard medication abortion access.
In stark contrast, Whatley, Cooper’s Republican opponent, said he was “proud” when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, erasing a half-century of federal constitutional protections and unleashing a nationwide reproductive health crisis. Whatley also called North Carolina’s abortion ban—which caused the preventable death of 34-year-old mother Ciji Graham—“reasonable” and “responsible.” Extremist anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has already pledged millions in midterm spending to try to buy the Senate seat for Whatley and secure a critical vote to rubber-stamp the Trump administration’s deadly anti-abortion agenda.
Read more about Reproductive Freedom for All’s endorsed candidates here.
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For over 55 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.