Pell Carlton Cooper

Current office and 2026 campaign

Pell Carlton Cooper is a Democratic candidate for North Carolina District Court Judge, District 8, Seat 1, serving Edgecombe, Nash, and Wilson counties, on the November 3, 2026 general-election ballot ⁵. He has served as a judge of what is now the 8th Judicial District Court since 1999; Wikipedia's biography (last substantively updated around his 2014 re-election) refers to the same Nash/Edgecombe/Wilson seat as the 7th Judicial District Court, reflecting North Carolina's judicial district renumbering since then ⁴⁵.

Background and education

Cooper was born in 1959 in Nashville, North Carolina, to Beverly Thorne Batchelor Cooper, a teacher, and Roy Asberry Cooper II, an attorney and Democratic Party operative. He is the brother of former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1984, spent a year at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1982, and received his Juris Doctor from UNC School of Law in 1988 ⁴.

Career

Cooper joined the district court bench in 1999 and was re-elected in 2014, serving Nash, Edgecombe, and Wilson counties ⁴. He presented the Nashville Chamber of Commerce's Distinguished Citizen Award in 2013 and was a guest speaker at the chamber's 2019 awards reception ⁴.

Business interests and wealth source

Cooper and his brother Roy Cooper established Will Clark Properties LLC, a real-estate investment company, on land purchased from their father in 1996. The company's 40-acre farm in Nash County has been leased to Strata Solar, a Durham-based solar-energy company; management of the farm was later handed to Cooper's wife, Meredith Garriss ⁴.

Sources