Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, who had been seen as a leading contender to become Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, has withdrawn from the vice-presidential sweepstakes.
Mr. Cooper confirmed the news, reported earlier by The New York Times, in a social media post on Monday night.
“This just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket,” Mr. Cooper wrote. “She has an outstanding list of people from which to choose, and we’ll all work to make sure she wins.”
Mr. Cooper, who previously served as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, was asked last week by the Harris campaign to be vetted for vice president but declined to participate, according to two people engaged in the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
The Cooper team reached out to the Harris campaign a week ago on Monday to say he did not want to be considered, one of the people said. It was the day after President Biden had left the race and endorsed Ms. Harris as his successor.
Mr. Cooper harbored concerns that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a conservative Republican who is on the ballot this year to replace him, would mount a legal effort to usurp his executive authority while he was out of state, the two people said. Mr. Cooper did not believe Mr. Robinson would be successful but thought any such challenge would serve as a chaotic distraction had he been added to the ticket.
A spokesman for the Harris campaign declined to comment.
Mr. Cooper has known Ms. Harris dating to their overlapping days as state attorneys general and also campaigned recently with her. He has twice won governor’s races in North Carolina, a battleground state, even as Donald J. Trump carried the state at the presidential level. Mr. Cooper is prohibited from seeking a third term.
Mr. Cooper, 67, is older than Ms. Harris, 59, but still a decade younger than Mr. Trump. He is considered to be North Carolina Democrats’ top contender to challenge Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican who next faces re-election in 2026.
Ms. Harris is seeking to select a running mate on a highly compressed timeline, aiming to make her choice by Aug. 7 — a little more than two weeks after she entered the race to replace President Biden on the Democratic ticket.
