Lara Trump and Eric Trump attend the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Both Democrats and Republicans seem to agree that they have frontrunners-in-waiting for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat.
But neither of them has jumped into the race. And their decisions are likely the only things holding up a flood of candidates from launching campaigns of their own.
Former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, continues to “strongly consider” a campaign, his longtime political advisor told Axios on Monday. And Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and a Wilmington native, has Republicans’ “right of first refusal.”
Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and First Lady Kristin Cooper after his farewell address at Nash Community College in Rocky Mount on Dec. 18, 2024. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)The two potential candidates would be formidable — Cooper a longtime staple of state Democratic politics who has never lost an election, and Trump carrying the network, fundraising and name recognition of the most powerful politician in the country. But if either (or both) decide not to run, a crowded field of contenders looking to succeed the retiring U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis is all but certain.
“They are both field-clearing candidates,” Western Carolina University professor Chris Cooper said of Trump in a radio interview with NC Newsline on Tuesday. “If either one of them gets in, I don’t think we’re going to see a lot of other action.”
Trump says Lara would be ‘first choice, but she doesn’t live there now’
Speaking to the press pool on Air Force One on Tuesday, the president mentioned his daughter-in-law when asked about the race.
“Somebody that would really be great is Lara,” Trump said.
“That would always be my first choice, but she doesn’t live there now,” the president later added, saying he didn’t know “who the candidates were going to be.”
“I think you’re going to have one of the congressmen step up. But she’d do very well.”
Trump said he hadn’t yet spoken to her about the race.
Richard Hudson withdraws his name, as Republicans call for a unified campaign
North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall, the 37-year-old who ascended to the dais this year, said Tuesday that Republicans in the state “must unify behind whoever President Trump picks.”
“The NC Senate race is too important to be derailed by a messy, divisive primary,” Hall wrote on social media. “The real fight is against the radical left destroying our country.”
U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-North Carolina)Freshman U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan, who has been named by several reports out of Washington as a potential candidate, named Lara Trump specifically.
“If [Lara Trump] enters this race, I’ll be the first to endorse her and the first to fight for her victory,” Harrigan wrote.
And another member of the state’s House delegation, U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, removed himself from the running Tuesday.
“My focus remains on representing the people of the 9th district — including the incredible men and women at [Fort] Bragg and their families — and on growing the House majority as NRCC chairman,” Hudson wrote.
On the Democratic side of the aisle, Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt could enter the race, a spokesperson told National Journal on Tuesday. But first, she’s waiting to see if the former governor jumps in.
“Hunt believes former Governor Roy Cooper will be the likely Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 2026 and would be a strong candidate,” the spokesperson told the D.C. publication. “If he decides not to run, she’s not ruling anything out.”
Meanwhile, the only announced high-profile Democratic candidate, former U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel, announced Monday that he’s in the race to stay and professed confidence that he can “take on whichever MAGA extremist Trump hand-picks to run.”
States Newsroom D.C. bureau chief Jane Norman contributed reporting.
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