NC Democratic Gov. Cooper endorses a Senate Democrat’s primary opponent
In an unusual move, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, endorsed the primary opponent of a sitting Senate Democrat.
The Democratic state senator, Kirk deViere, said the decision surprised him and criticized Cooper for trying to influence a primary election.
DeViere is running for reelection to represent Cumberland County in Senate District 19. Both he and his primary opponent, Val Applewhite, are former Fayetteville City Council members. DeViere and Applewhite both ran for mayor in 2013, and both lost.
Candidate filing ended Friday. The primary is May 17.
On Tuesday, Cooper endorsed Applewhite, saying she “isn’t afraid to stand up to Right Wing Republicans.”
DeViere said he was taken aback, both by Applewhite’s run and the governor’s endorsement.
“I was very disappointed to see the governor of our state and the leader of our Democratic Party attempt to put his foot on the scale and use the weight of his office in a primary in support of Val,” deViere told The News & Observer in an interview Tuesday.
DeViere said he talked to Applewhite on the phone just days before she filed the paperwork for her campaign, but she hadn’t mentioned she was going to run against him.
Budget, school votes
DeViere has voted with the Republican majority on a few bills that were battlegrounds for the Republican-majority General Assembly and Democratic governor, including those concerning schools reopening and the state budget. Those both became law because of compromise between the parties.
“Communities deserve to choose their own representatives,” deViere said in a statement. “I’m confident that the voters of Cumberland understand what’s at stake and will choose the voice that best represents their interests ... My vote has and will always be with the people of our community. This primary challenge is a direct result of putting my community over partisan politics and not being a rubber stamp. Together we can send a message that working families have had enough of the power politics and that this seat belongs to you, the people of Cumberland County.”
In an interview, deViere said that he hasn’t talked to Cooper since he and other Democrats on the budget conference committee met with him at the Executive Mansion in 2021 during budget negotiations.
“The governor hasn’t called me. He hasn’t voiced anything to me” since then, deViere said.
DeViere was one of four Senate Democrats whose prior votes earned them seats on the budget conference committee with Republicans. The other three were Sen. Ben Clark, Sen. Don Davis and Sen. Paul Lowe. Clark and Davis are both now running for Congress.
Some moderate Democrats have voted with Republicans a few times previously on controversial issues, including on the school reopening bill that led to a return of in-person learning during the pandemic.
Cooper mentioned some of his key budget issues in his endorsement of Applewhite.
“Right now, our state needs members of the State Senate focused on one thing — delivering for all North Carolinians,” Cooper said in an Applewhite campaign news release. “I need legislators who will help me expand Medicaid, pay teachers more and give everyone an opportunity, which is why I’m proud to endorse Val Applewhite. I know Val and trust her to do what is best for North Carolina.” Cooper also retweeted Applewhite’s announcement of the endorsement.
“With Val in the State Senate, Cumberland County will have a tireless advocate who isn’t afraid to stand up to Right Wing Republicans as we work to build a state where everyone has an equal chance to prosper,” Cooper said.
‘Unprecedented’ move by Cooper
DeViere was a key Democratic negotiator on the budget compromise in 2021, after the 2019 budget stalemate meant no new state budget for years. The senator told The N&O in the fall that he had been called to the mansion more than once when Cooper wanted to influence his vote.
Republican Sen. Jim Perry said Tuesday he was surprised there hasn’t been pushback from the Senate Democratic caucus. Perry called the move “bizarre” and an attack on a senator in the Democratic caucus. He said endorsing the opponent of a sitting senator in your party is “sort of a violation of code.”
“What does this mean? Does this mean that no Democrat member can get involved and move the process along that helps their constituents?” Perry said.
Perry said the state would not have a tax cut for veterans in the budget if it were not for deViere’s role in negotiations. DeViere noted the budget compromise expanded Medicaid for new mothers and said it included a path to broader expansion, as well as raising the minimum wage for uncertified school personnel to $15 an hour. He emphasized that the result was a bipartisan budget that Cooper signed into law.
Through his spokesperson, Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue declined to comment on deViere’s primary race.
Morgan Jackson, a Democratic strategist to Cooper, said the endorsement for Applewhite came because it “is critically important that we have strong Democratic senators in Raleigh who are focused on expanding Medicaid and strengthening our public schools.”
“Val Applewhite will be a champion for both. That’s why she has Gov. Cooper’s strong support,” Jackson told The N&O. He said that with Applewhite in the Senate, “we have a much better chance to expand Medicaid and invest in our public schools than we do right now.”
Medicaid expansion is the subject of a legislative study committee and a possible vote on expansion is expected later this year. Newly elected lawmakers would take office in 2023.
Attempts to reach Applewhite on Tuesday were unsuccessful. In a Facebook Live video Tuesday, she talked about the endorsement and said “this campaign is going to get up and running.”
She read Cooper’s endorsement statement and said it was like an early birthday present. She said the endorsement shows that “he doesn’t have trust or confidence” in deViere.
“To have Gov. Cooper step into a primary, a Democratic primary, shows that he has lost confidence in our current state Sen. Kirk deViere. It is unprecedented and very rare that you see a governor step into any primary, Republican or Democrat,” Applewhite said.
Cooper does not endorse candidates in presidential primaries, his 2020 campaign said.
Democrat Ed Donaldson is also running in the Senate District 19 primary. The winner goes on to compete in the November general election against the winner of the Republican primary. Republicans Dennis Britt and Wesley Meredith, both of Fayetteville, are running.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 7:15 PM with the headline "NC Democratic Gov. Cooper endorses a Senate Democrat’s primary opponent."
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