Roy Cooper won't reject socialist platform, says Democrats must 'be together' in video obtained by Fox News

Former North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, refused on camera to sign a moderate Democrats' pledge repudiating socialist positions, and argued the party needs to welcome DSA-backed candidates into the fold.

Video footage obtained by Fox News Digital shows Cooper dismissing the Promise to America, a pledge crafted by moderate Democrats to distance the party from the Democratic Socialists of America and its policy agenda. Asked whether he would sign it, Cooper was blunt: "I don't see any need to."

He went further. Cooper said the Democratic Party should open its arms wide enough to include candidates backed by the DSA, the same organization whose published platform calls for abolishing the U.S. Senate, placing corporations under public ownership, and eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Cooper frames socialist alliance as survival strategy

In the footage, Cooper cast the question not as one of ideology but of political arithmetic. He told the interviewer that Democrats cannot afford to draw lines within their own coalition, especially now.

"I think the party needs a wide spectrum, particularly at a time when the [Republican Party] is shrinking and having all kinds of loyalty tests. I think we need to have all kinds of folks to be a part of our party."

Cooper then invoked the language of crisis. He described Democrats as being "in a foxhole" and argued that unity with the party's far-left wing is the price of holding power.

"Particularly now when we're in such difficult straits, and we're in a foxhole right now. We've all got to be together to take our government back."

He added a warning: "We could fall to the autocracy anytime we don't stick together. So, I don't see the need signing something."

That framing, casting a refusal to condemn socialist positions as a stand against "autocracy", is a revealing window into how Cooper plans to run in a historically Republican-leaning state. He is asking North Carolina voters to trust him as a moderate while he explicitly refuses to draw a boundary between his politics and those of the DSA.

What the DSA actually wants

The organization Cooper declined to distance himself from publishes its vision openly. From the DSA's own website: "You have no debt. You don't need health insurance. You don't pay a mortgage or have a landlord, because comfortable housing is a human right. Your retirement is publicly funded. Food, education, energy, medicine and transportation aren't for-profit businesses; they are common goods and utilities."

Beyond that utopian sketch, the DSA platform includes abolishing the U.S. Senate as an institution, establishing public ownership of major corporations, and dismantling ICE. These are not fringe blog posts. They are the stated positions of an organization whose endorsed candidates have surged in 2026 midterm primaries across the country.

Cooper was not asked to endorse those positions. He was asked only to sign a pledge rejecting them. He would not do it.

His campaign says one thing; the video says another

Cooper's campaign provided a written statement to Fox News Digital that tried to thread a needle. "The only pledge Roy makes is to the people of North Carolina," the campaign said. "Roy is not a socialist, and he will work with anyone, including Republicans, as he has done his entire career to lower costs for hardworking families and fight for North Carolina."

Separately, in an interview with The New York Times, Cooper responded to a question about whether he is a communist. "For the record, no," he said. "I have a record of working across the aisle. The people of North Carolina know that I can be a senator that puts them first. Before power, before party, before politics."

The gap between those carefully worded denials and Cooper's on-camera statements is hard to miss. He says he is not a socialist. He also says the party should welcome socialists and that he sees no reason to formally reject their platform. Both things cannot be true at the same time, not if the word "moderate" means anything.

When Fox News Digital asked Cooper's campaign directly whether his platform is at odds with the DSA's views, the campaign declined to comment.

Cruz: moderate Democrats are 'terrified of the extreme left'

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addressed the broader dynamic at an energy summit co-hosted by the Club for Growth and Arnold Ventures. Cruz argued that Democratic candidates like Cooper are trapped, unwilling to challenge their progressive flank even when it costs them credibility with general-election voters.

"That dynamic is dangerous right now because they are terrified of the extreme left. Finding a middle ground on ideological issues right now is... the prospects for success, particularly between now and election day, are not high."

Cruz added a blunt assessment of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's position: "Schumer is truly terrified right now." The growing influence of DSA-aligned figures within the Democratic caucus has put leaders like Schumer in an increasingly difficult spot, caught between a progressive base that demands ideological purity and swing-state voters who want nothing to do with socialism.

Cooper's race is a case study in that tension. He served as North Carolina's governor from 2017 to 2025 and built a reputation as a pragmatist. Now he is running for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. His opponent is Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee and former chair of the Republican National Committee. The general election is set for November 3.

In a state that leans Republican, Cooper's path to victory depends on convincing voters he is a centrist who can work across the aisle. That pitch becomes considerably harder when video shows him arguing that the party's socialist wing belongs in the tent, and that anyone who asks him to say otherwise is imposing a "loyalty test."

The pattern is not unique to Cooper. Across the country, Democratic candidates who market themselves as moderates have faced the same question: Will you draw a clear line between your politics and those of the DSA? Again and again, the answer has been silence, deflection, or, as in Cooper's case, an explicit refusal.

North Carolina voters deserve a straight answer

The Promise to America exists precisely because DSA-backed candidates have gained enough traction within the Democratic Party to alarm its own moderates. The pledge is not a Republican document. It was put together by Democrats who recognized that their party's brand was being pulled leftward by an organization that wants to abolish the Senate, nationalize industry, and eliminate border enforcement.

Cooper could have signed it and moved on. Instead, he chose to explain, on camera, why he believes the party should stand shoulder to shoulder with candidates who hold those views. He framed it as pragmatism. But the socialist insurgency rattling Democratic ranks is not a branding exercise. It is a policy agenda with real consequences for taxpayers, property owners, and anyone who believes the constitutional structure of the republic is worth preserving.

Cooper's campaign says he is not a socialist. The video shows a man who refuses to say what a socialist is, or why anyone should object to being one. North Carolina voters heading to the polls on November 3 will have to decide which version of Roy Cooper they believe.

And they should know that when socialist primary winners are being called a national threat, the Democratic nominee for Senate in their state looked at the socialist platform and decided it wasn't worth rejecting.

When a candidate tells you who he is willing to stand with, believe him.