North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and the Democrats kicked off the 2024 election cycle

What's next for North Carolina's term-limited governor

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This weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina Democrats kicked off the 2024 election cycle. Governor Roy Cooper gathered 350 party officers, elected officials, donors, and party stalwarts for a two-day retreat to prepare for the upcoming election. The event was a mixture of social gathering, pep rally, and workshop. By the time it was over, spirits were high, the mood optimistic, and the party establishment had its marching orders. It was a big morale booster to a party that was battered in 2022 and has gone through a frustrating legislative session at the hands of a veto-proof Republican majority.

The gathering opened Friday night with a discussion between Cooper and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The conversation was wide ranging, at times cerebral and others light-hearted, but the subject matter was serious, informational, and solution-oriented. At one point, Buttigieg noted that the disinformation pushed by our adversaries is not meant to just misinform people, but to foment division. Russians and Chinese target both sides of the debate to keep people apart.

After watching the Speaker debacle and four years of Donald Trump, I couldn’t imagine a Republican gathering having a similar tone or demeanor. There was more nuance than red meat. They reminded us that Democrats are the party of governing and solutions, looking for ways to make our society and our country work better for more people. Republicans’ answer to almost every problem is to cut taxes and destroy what they believe are corrupt, elite institutions that interfere with free enterprise. Cooper and Buttigieg reminded us that governing a state of 10 million people and a country of 320 million is complex and needs smart, committed people at the helm, not ideologues offering simple answers to difficult problems.

On Saturday morning, Stacy Abrams woke up the crowd, offering a motivating speech that reminded people of the importance of hard work in getting voters to the polls. She’s a better activist than candidate. Her program to identify and register voters helped turn Georgia into a competitive state where Democrats have won three U.S. Senate races in two years. If North Carolina hopes to follow Georgia, they’ll need similar operations in place.

The rest of the morning consisted of breakout sessions with topics like the importance of judicial races, the path to a legislative majority, and winning federal races in North Carolina. At lunch, Cooper’s chief strategist Morgan Jackson laid out Democrats’ path to victory in 2024, focusing on how the state is steadily shifting blue with virtually every county that’s growing increasing its Democratic margin each election cycle. While Republicans are increasing their margins in exurban and rural counties, those areas are losing population.

Jackson largely blamed North Carolina’s poor performance in 2022 on the lack of investment from the national party, noting that states where Democrats outspent Republicans, Democrats won. Cheri Beasley was left with the task of both making the case for herself and defining Ted Budd. While she outraised him, she lacked the funds to accomplish both. The progressive Super Pacs who should have highlighted Budd’s election denial and right-wing extremism hung her out to dry.

Jackson also expressed the need for a serious turnout operation in 2024 and said that the Democratic Governors Association is fully invested in the state. He believes that the extremism of Mark Robinson and Dan Bishop should serve as motivators to juice turnout and drive a wedge between moderate swing voters and Republicans. In other words, the challenges of 2022 won’t be a problem in 2024.

On Friday night, I heard several people ask, “What’s this all about?” It was largely a pep rally and morale booster. It brought together a group of leaders and influencers who hadn’t been in the same room since before COVID and maybe longer than that. It was a call to arms with a message that we’re here to fight for our state.

But it was also something else. It was Roy Cooper’s show. He let the most influential Democrats in the state know that he’s here to lead the party into the 2024 election cycle. He may not be on the ballot but he’s going to be on the campaign battlefield. As he said in his opening remarks, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Cooper is clearly not ready to leave the public stage. That leaves the question, what’s next for Roy Cooper? He could certainly go into the Biden administration if there’s a second term. He could also run for U.S. Senate in 2026 when Thom Tillis is up for re-election. Or he could lead a major think tank or maybe start one of his own. He’s got a lot of options, but I think this weekend was a signal that while he may be leaving office at the end of next year, he’s not leaving the fight for North Carolina.