Former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is running for the U.S. Senate, and as Townhall has reported in the past, his record as governor is against him. Cooper has a very alarming track record of being soft on crime, releasing thousands of violent criminals who went on to reoffend, including committing murder. He's also pro-illegal alien and anti-ICE.
Cooper also demonstrates tremendous hypocrisy. Back in July, Townhall reported that while Cooper vowed to fight "big insurance," his campaigns have taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from insurance companies. And now we've got another example of Cooper's glaring hypocrisy.
In June, Cooper's campaign attacked his Republican opponent, Michael Whatley, for owning Duke Energy stock.
Here are two completely random facts about Michael Whatley that have NO correlation:
— Team Roy Cooper (@TeamCooperNC) June 12, 2026
1. He has refused to criticize Duke Energy’s proposed rate hikes that will make your energy bill go up.
2. He owns Duke Energy stock and lobbied for them.https://t.co/4ADutKuCYN
It turns out Roy Cooper also has a stake in Duke Energy via mutual funds. This is interesting not just because it exposes Cooper's hypocritical double standard, but it also shows that — despite Cooper's promise to ban members of Congress from trading stocks — he's found an end-run-around to keep his hands clean.
Cooper invests in Duke Energy stock through multiple funds, according to financial disclosures. This includes the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX), the North Carolina Large Cap Index Fund, the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF, the Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF, and the Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund (VTIAX).
Additionally, Cooper has taken in more than $440,000 from Duke Energy PACs, executives, and employees during his nearly 40-year political career. This includes $360,000 to the Democratic Governors' Association (DGA) while Cooper was Chair, and $10,000 from DukePAC during this election cycle.
There's also a revolving door between Cooper's staff and Duke Energy. Ken Eudy, Cooper's former senior advisor, was a manager at a lobbying firm that counted Duke Energy as a client while Eudy was serving in the Cooper administration. Despite disclosures suggesting Eudy left the lobbying firm before joining the Cooper administration, an April 2017 filing listed Eudy as one of the firm's managers, which counted Duke Energy as a client. This was months into Eudy's job with the Cooper administration.
Eudy was also the lead negotiator on Cooper's $57.8 million pipeline slush fund, too. In 2019, during a hearing before the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operation Subcommittee on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Eudy testified that he did not ask Duke for a statement declaring the fund was voluntary. State Sen. Harry Brown asked him directly, and Eudy replied, "No, sir." However, the investigation revealed that Eudy had spoken to Duke lobbyist Kathy Hawkins and did exactly that. Hawkins would later tell that subcommittee that Eudy wasn't being truthful. Eudy was the source of a text from Hawkins to Duke's CEO that said, "Ken Eudy said [the] Governor will make this decision versus Regan," directly contradicting a claim from Cooper that he "absolutely" did not decide on the pipeline permit.
Two other Cooper staffers came straight from lobbying for Dominion Energy, the pipeline's other partner. This includes Lee Lilley, Cooper's legislative affairs director, and general counsel William McKinney, the attorney whose edits rewrote the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that rerouted the money through the governor's office rather than the state of North Carolina. Both Cooper and McKinney skipped the subcommittee's 2019 request to testify.
Claudia Shoemaker worked as an assistant scheduler in Gov. Cooper's office starting in 2017, and later as a Governor's Office liaison. In 2024, she joined Duke Energy and works in state government affairs.
Another staffer, Mary Scott Winstead, served as Cooper's deputy and senior deputy communications director in the Governor's Office. She is now the CEO of Communications at Duke Energy.
Roy Cooper’s attack on Michael Whatley for owning Duke Energy stock collapses under the weight of Cooper's own record. While lecturing his opponent about owning stock and vowing to end congressional stock trading, Cooper holds stock in Duke Energy through multiple mutual funds.
Over the last four decades, Cooper has pocketed more than $440,000 from that same company, and the revolving door between his office and Duke’s payroll exposes a relationship far deeper than simply holding stocks.
This is not an isolated lapse. It fits the same pattern as Cooper’s soft-on-crime record, his resistance to immigration enforcement, and his earlier hypocrisy on the insurance industry. He rails against “big” interests when it polls well, then quietly benefits from them. He vows to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, yet maintains an end-run through mutual funds. North Carolinians deserve better than a candidate who holds his opponents to one standard and himself to another.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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