Roy Cooper wants his party to make room for the Democratic Socialists of America, and he's willing to say so on camera. That posture may reflect honest conviction. It also arrives at an awkward moment: Cooper, the former North Carolina governor, has secured the Democratic Senate nomination and now faces Republican Michael Whatley, former chair of the Republican National Committee, on November 3 in a state that has historically tilted toward the GOP.
The video, obtained by Fox News Digital, shows Cooper declining to sign the Promise to America, a pledge circulated by moderate Democrats that repudiates socialist policy positions. He told the interviewer the party needs "a wide spectrum" of participants and that there is "no need" to sign such a document. The DSA, whose candidates have surged in the 2026 midterm primaries, advocates for abolishing the U.S. Senate, establishing public ownership of corporations, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Cooper is not affiliated with the group. His campaign has said he is not a socialist, and he told the New York Times as much directly: "For the record, no." The campaign's stated position is that the only pledge Cooper makes is to the constituents of North Carolina, pointing to his record of working with a Republican-controlled legislature during his 2017 to 2025 governorship as evidence of his cross-aisle credibility.
The read-through is straightforward. Cooper is betting that party cohesion matters more than ideological distance from the DSA's platform, especially when, as he put it, the party is "in a foxhole." He argued that the alternative is falling "to the autocracy" and that dissent within the coalition only weakens the resistance.
The counterargument belongs to Ted Cruz. Speaking at an energy summit hosted by Club for Growth and Arnold Ventures, the Texas Republican argued that moderate Democrats are "terrified of the extreme left" and that finding a middle ground between now and election day carries dim prospects. Cruz added that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is "truly terrified right now." That read cuts to the core risk: if Cruz's diagnosis is correct, Cooper's inclusive posture is less a principled strategy than a forced accommodation, and Whatley's campaign has a ready-made frame for the general.
On balance, Cooper enters November with a genuine bipartisan record and a difficult positioning problem. His governorship gives him cross-aisle credibility the tape alone cannot erase. What it does not give him is distance from a pledge refusal that hands opponents a concrete, dated piece of footage. The line to watch is how Whatley uses that video between now and November 3.