Speaking on CBS News’s Face the Nation, Cooper stressed Harris’s frequent visits to campaign in the state, along with the Tar Heel State being the Biden-Harris campaign’s closest loss in 2020, as evidence that she “knows” winning North Carolina guarantees an overall victory in November.

“There’s no question about it. It’s close here in North Carolina. It always is. This was Biden-Harris’s closest loss in 2020, only 1.3%. So the fact that Kamala Harris, as vice president of the United States, has been to North Carolina 17 times shows that she cares about our state. She knows that we are in play. And she knows that if she wins North Carolina, she is the next president of the United States because [former President Donald] Trump has no other pathway,” he said.

Host Margaret Brennan emphasized the effect rural voters have on the vote in North Carolina, asking Cooper whether for the Democrats it’s about winning, or just “reducing the amount by which they lose rural voters.”

Cooper pointed to his expansion of Medicaid and access to high-speed internet as evidence rural voters may be persuaded to vote blue this election. He also pointed to Harris’s economic “plan,” which he said includes lowering costs in relation to child care and drug pricing.

Harris has been targeted by Republicans for lacking a policy agenda less than two months out from Election Day and before she is scheduled to take the debate stage against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Earlier Sunday, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said Harris “needs to be told what her policies are because she doesn’t really know what they are.”

The latest polling from RealClearPolitics shows a tight race for the battleground state of North Carolina, with Trump leading Harris 47.9% to 47.2% in a head-to-head race.