RALEIGH, N.C. AP - Democrats still in the dumps over last year's elections have found cause for optimism in North Carolina, where former Gov. Roy Cooper jumped into the race for that state's newly open seat with a vow to address voters' persistent concerns about the challenges of making ends meet.
Even Republicans quietly note that Cooper's candidacy makes their job of holding the seat more difficult and expensive. Cooper had raised 2.6 million for his campaign between his Monday launch and Tuesday, and more than 900,000 toward allied groups.
Republicans, meanwhile, are hardly ceding the economic populist ground. In announcing his candidacy for the Senate on Thursday, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley credited President Donald Trump with fulfilling campaign promises to working Americans and painted Cooper as a puppet of the left.
Still, Cooper's opening message that he hears the worries of working families has given Democrats in North Carolina and beyond a sense that they can reclaim their place as the party that champions the middle class. They think it's a message that could help them pick up a Senate seat, and possibly more, in next year's midterm elections, which in recent years have typically favored the party out of power.
"I'm Roy Cooper. And I know that today, for too many Americans, the middle class feels like a distant dream," the former governor said in a video announcing his candidacy. "Meanwhile, the biggest corporations and the richest Americans have grabbed unimaginable wealth at your expense. It's time for that to change."