The governor of North Carolina,

Governor Cooper, I think is a really, really good governor.

He's a guy that I would keep my eyes on if I were you guys in the media.

That's Congressman Jim Clyburn on this show back in June.

Clyburn was prescient about Governor Roy Cooper. Two weeks later President Joe Biden bungled

his debate with Donald Trump and that set off a volatile month in politics when Cooper

suddenly seemed to be everywhere.

There's a sort of forest gump like quality with your role in all of this.

You're at all the key moments here.

Yeah, I could have had a few Dr peppers for sure.

When Biden dropped out of the race and the Democratic party rallied around Kamala Harris

as his replacement Cooper was widely considered to be a top choice to serve as her running mate.

The case was obvious. He's the twice elected governor of a purple state, where he's never lost an election since his first race in 1986.

And he and Harris have some history. They became close when they served as the attorneys general of their respective states back in the 2010s.

But Cooper did something unusual. He told the Harris team he didn't want to be considered as her running mate.

I caught up with Governor Cooper on Thursday to find out why he took himself out of contention

and how some weird local politics influenced his decision. We also talked about his conversations with

Harris, Biden, and Nancy Pelosi as Democratic leaders navigated the post-debate crisis

that led to Harris's ascension, how he coached the president

in the last days of Biden's campaign, and whether or not you should believe the hype

about Democrats flipping North Carolina this year.

I'm Ryan Liza and this is Playbook Deep Dive. We have just been through one of the most historic months in American politics, if we could just

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