Roy Cooper

Roy Asberry Cooper III (born June 13, 1957) is a former member of the North Carolina State Senate, and is the current North Carolina Attorney General. His most well known case was the Duke lacrosse case in 2007. He is a member of the North Carolina Democratic Party, and is running for Governor of North Carolina in the 2016 election against incumbent Pat McCrory.

Personal life and education

Born in Nash County, North Carolina, Cooper was raised in a rural community and worked in tobacco fields during the summer as a teenager. He received the Morehead Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, serving as the president of the university's Young Democrats, and then also earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from UNC.

Cooper has a wife, Kristin, and three daughters, Hilary, Natalie, and Claire.

State Legislature

After practicing law with his family's law firm for a number of years, Cooper was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1986 and named to the North Carolina Senate in 1991. In 1997, he was elected Democratic Majority Leader of the state Senate. He continued to practice law as the managing partner of the law firm Fields & Cooper in Rocky Mount and Nashville, North Carolina.