Lynn Bonner, NC Newsline

When and how North Carolina voters cast their ballots last year is a key to distinguishing which votes in the race for a state Supreme Court seat are in danger of being thrown out.

Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin is seeking to toss out more than 60,000 votes in the race. He trails Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes.

Most of the votes Griffin wants tossed were cast by people he argues were not legally registered because, he claims, they did not provide required ID numbers on their registration applications. Both the state Supreme Court and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals are hearing the case at this point.

All the voters Griffin is challenging cast ballots during the early voting period or voted absentee. Those ballots can be traced to individual voters. A Griffin court brief says he believes he can win if the votes he is contesting are erased.

In addition to the voters whose registration he questions, he also wants to delete the votes of overseas voters who did not provide photo ID with their ballots, and those of overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina but whose parents lived in the state.

None of the voters he’s challenged voted in person on Election Day. Ballots cast by people who vote on Election Day cannot be tracked back to individuals.

The League of Women Voters of North Carolina put a focus on how Griffin treats voters differently depending on when they voted in a “friend of the court” brief it filed while U.S. District Judge Richard Myers II had the case and before he sent it back to state court.

The Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires “that when making determinations about the validity of its citizens’ ballots, the government cannot apply one set of rules to, say early in-person and absentee voters and a different set of rules to similarly situated voters who cast their ballots on election day,” the brief said.

Anne Tindall, one of the lawyers with Protect Democracy who represented the League and individual voters, said in an interview that if government treats people differently, it has to have a reason.

“The Equal Protection clause, when it comes to something like voting, holds the government to a higher standard than what the requested relief would require,” she said.

In his order sending the case back to state court, Myers said he considered the League’s brief, but he did not address the equal protection issue.

The North Carolina constitution also has an Equal Protection clause, said Jeff Loperfido, chief counsel for voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

Protections under the state Equal Protection clause are stronger, he said.

“Under our Equal Protection clause, the constitutional protections for individuals should be more protective and more expansive.”

Craig Schauer, a lawyer representing Griffin, did not reply to a Jan. 3 email or Jan. 6 phone call. He did, however, respond to a question about equal protection when the State Board of Elections debated Griffin’s voter protests on Dec. 11.

Board member Siobhan Millen, a Democrat, asked Schauer about counting the votes of some people with missing information, but not others.

“Wouldn’t the people whose votes are thrown out have an equal protection claim based on different treatment depending on which method of voting they chose?” she asked.

Schauer responded: “Equal protection requires that the two groups be similarly situated. So, I believe there could be a basis of distinguishing the two groups on the fact that some elected to vote provisionally or by absentee ballot and others elected to vote in person. I will say that is a question I haven’t contemplated before and it is a good question for the board to consider.”

In a brief filed Tuesday in the state Supreme Court case, Griffin’s lawyers seem to deemphasize his protest of early, in-person voters.

Griffin’s lawyers suggest the Supreme Court consider the protests in phases, starting with overseas absentee ballots that arrived without photo ID. A state Board of Elections rule exempts overseas voters from the photo ID requirement, but Griffin says the Board was wrong to adopt such a rule.

If Griffin is ahead of Riggs after those overseas votes are erased, the Supreme Court wouldn’t have to make a decision on to the other categories, the brief says.

While all eyes were on Judge Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to discard ballots in a case that’s now with the state Supreme Court, there’s a parallel action, with a hearing today, in Wake Superior Court in a lawsuit brought by the Republican Party.

Griffin, a Republican Appeals Court judge, is seeking to throw out more than 60,000 votes cast in the fall election on the belief that doing so will allow him to unseat incumbent Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs. Riggs leads by 734 votes.

While Griffin wants votes subtracted only in his race, a separate Republican lawsuit seeks to potentially throw out tens of thousands of votes cast in all statewide races. At this point, all statewide election results, except the result in Supreme Court race, have been certified and the winners have taken office. The Democratic National Committee will go to court to formally oppose the GOP suit.

Most of the ballots Griffin is seeking to discount were cast by people he claims did not provide driver’s license numbers or a partial Social Security number on their registration applications. He argues those voters are not legally registered, though many have been registered and voting for decades.

State law does not require voters to have a driver’s license number or Social Security number.

In a separate lawsuit, the Republican National Committee, the state Republican Party, the Wake County Republican Party and two voters want a Superior Court judge to require the state Board of Elections to go through the more than 60,000 ballots to determine whether the voters were validly registered and deduct the votes of those who weren’t, or have elections officials go back to voters to collect the government digits under a deadline. Republicans propose that voters whose information is not collected would have their votes discarded for all elections for state offices.

The lawsuit blames the state Board of Elections for violating state law by not collecting the information, and asks for a preliminary injunction. The state Supreme Court ordered a temporary stay in Griffin’s case earlier this week.

The Democratic National Committee will ask to intervene in the GOP lawsuit to oppose it.

The election is over and all the elections are certified or are already being litigated over the exact same claims, the DNC brief says.

“Plaintiffs’ lawsuit runs counter to the generalities they purport to espouse. They claim they are combating “voter fraud,” yet they attempt to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters who have lawfully registered and cast their ballots for decades,” the brief says.

“They claim they are promoting “election integrity,” but their lawsuit undermines voters’ ability to trust that their voter registrations are valid and their votes will be counted. The motion should be denied and the status quo maintained pending trial on the merits.”

At Griffin’s request, the state Supreme Court this week blocked certification of Riggs’ election while it considers his case. Republicans hold a 5-2 majority on the court. Four Republican justices decided to hear the case, while one Republican and one Democrat dissented. Riggs has recused herself.

The state Board of Elections dismissed Griffin’s protests last month.

Last year, the state GOP and the Republican National Committee sued to have 225,000 voters purged from the registration rolls over the issue of partial voter registration applications. A federal judge partially dismissed the suit.

Some voters have said they put partial Social Security numbers on their applications, but through data mismatches, the numbers were not attached to their voter files.

At the request of GOP Judge Jefferson Griffin, Republicans on the state Supreme Court have prohibited the state Board of Elections from certifying Democratic Justice Allison Riggs’ election.

Riggs, the incumbent, leads Griffin by 734 votes in the election for a seat on the state’s highest court.

Griffin, an Appeals Court judge, wants to discount more than 60,000 votes on the belief that throwing them out will allow him to win.

After the state Board of Elections dismissed his election protests last month, Griffin asked the Supreme Court, where Republicans hold a 5-2 majority, to step in.

The state Board had the case transferred to federal court, but on Monday, U.S. District Judge Richard Myers II sent it back to state court.

Tuesday’s order for a temporary stay said the state Supreme Court received notice that the state Board plans to appeal Myers’ decision, but “in the absence of a stay from federal court, this matter should be addressed expeditiously because it concerns certification of an election.”

Democratic Justice Anita Earls dissented, writing that the standards for a temporary stay have not been met.

Riggs has recused herself from participation in the case.

Most of the votes Griffin wants thrown out are those his campaign claims were cast by people who did not include a driver’s license or partial Social Security number on their voter registration applications. People who did not include those numbers on their applications are not legally registered, Republican lawyers have argued. Many of those voters have been voting regularly for years. The Republican Party used the same argument last year in a lawsuit seeking to have more than 225,000 voters purged from the registration rolls or to be forced to cast provisional ballots. Myers partially dismissed that suit.

It will be easier for residents of 13 counties hardest hit by Hurricane Helene to cast absentee ballots this fall, as the state Board of Elections adopted a host of changes meant to help voters recovering from the disaster.

The emergency resolution the state Board adopted unanimously on Monday included provisions meant to increase voter outreach, make it easier to request and return absentee ballots, and to allow for county elections officials to establish alternative voting locations to replace damaged or inaccessible polling places.

All county elections offices are now open, state Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell told board members.

After suggesting last week that hurricane disruptions could delay the start of early voting in some counties, Brinson Bell said Monday the intention for early voting to begin statewide as planned on Oct. 17.

“We have every intention of starting early voting as scheduled on Thursday, Oct. 17 in all 100 counties,” Brinson Bell told reporters Monday afternoon. “It will go on.”

The emergency resolution applies to 13 counties:: Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, and Yancey.

Paul Cox, one of the Board’s lawyers, said the infrastructure for conducting elections, accessibility of voting sites, postal service, and transportation remain “severely disrupted” in these counties.

“These measures will help eligible voters in the affected areas cast their ballot either in person or by mail,” Brinson Bell said. “They will help county boards of election in western North Carolina administer this election under extraordinarily difficult conditions.”

Voters from these counties will be able to request absentee ballots in person at their county board of elections office up until the day before the election. They will be able to return absentee ballots at polling places in their counties on Election Day, something that is usually not allowed. Voters, as usual, are able to hand in their ballots at county elections offices. The deadline is 7:30 pm on Election Day.

To accommodate displaced voters who have moved temporarily from their home counties, the Board voted to allow residents of those 13 counties to return their absentee ballots to any North Carolina county elections office by the 7:30 pm Election Day deadline.

To increase voter outreach, the “multiparty assistance teams” appointed by county boards to assist voters in nursing homes and hospitals will be able to work in shelters and other places where disaster relief is being provided to the general public, with the approval of bipartisan majorities of the county boards.

Under the resolution, local boards of election in the 13 counties will be able to change early voting sites and hours as long as a bipartisan majority approves. The local boards will also be able to move Election Day polling places with bipartisan majority support. Out-of-precinct polling places can be established in neighboring counties adjacent to the precinct, with Brinson Bell’s approval. Out-of-precinct locations are to be considered as a last resort.

The plan was developed in consultation with the counties. The North Carolina Division of Emergency Management is ready to deliver supplies, Brinson Bell said.

Information on changes to voting locations will be sent to local media, posted on websites, in disaster relief locations and other places where people gather, Brinson Bell said.

Elections officials won’t ask the legislature for any changes to election law to address voting hampered by Helene, but they will ask for about $2 million to help local elections offices.

North Carolina is a battleground state where the presidential election could be decided by the thinnest of margins. Most of the counties hit hardest by Helene are solidly Republican.

At the news conference, Brinson Bell pushed back at suggestions that the Board’s response to the disaster has been partisan or that she is partisan.

“I hope that it is very clear to everyone today that that state Board acted in a nonpartisan manner,” she said. “I, as Executive Director, act in a nonpartisan manner. Our commitment at this state Board and at those county boards of election is to ensure that every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot in this election no matter what county they’re in.”

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.

Less than 24 hours after CNN’s searing report on Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, North Carolina residents are being reminded of his connections to former President Donald Trump through digital billboard displays in Charlotte, Greensboro, and locations near Raleigh.

The Democratic National Committee had the messages up Friday in time for Trump’s campaign event in Wilmington on Saturday.

The CNN report found a username linked to Robinson on the pornographic website Nude Africa, where the writer on its message board called himself a “black NAZI,” said he wanted to buy slaves, and that he enjoyed transgender pornography, along with other anti-Semitic, racist, and sexually explicit posts. Robinson listed his full name in his profile on the site, CNN reported.

Robinson, who has crusaded against LGBTQ people and used the word “filth” referring to them, released a video late Thursday where he denied making the message board comments and vowed to stay in the race for governor.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign also released an ad linking Robinson and Trump called “Both Wrong,” which highlights Robinson’s anti-abortion comments.

The ad alternates Trump’s praise for Robinson with Robinson’s anti-abortion statements, including, “Abortion in this country, it’s about killing a child because you aren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”

Harris is emphasizing her support for reproductive freedom in her campaign.

“Trump can’t run away from the truth: He stands shoulder to shoulder with Robinson and for the extreme abortion bans that are putting women’s lives at risk across the country — and if they have the chance, they will go further and ban abortion across the country. From now until Election Day, we will make sure voters don’t forget that,” Harris-Walz Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

Trump endorsed Robinson in the GOP primary for governor.

Associated Press reported Friday afternoon that Robinson will not speak or appear at Trump’s rally on Saturday in Wilmington following the CNN report. Robinson has made frequent appearances at other Trump events in the battleground state.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s rapid response social media site posted a montage Thursday of the two men shaking hands and standing side-by-side giving thumbs-up, along with video of Trump praising Robinson. At one campaign stop, Trump referred to Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

In his 2022 autobiography, Robinson wrote about calling Martin Luther King a communist on Facebook.

Martin Luther King III said on Thursday that Robinson’s rhetoric, and grotesque characterization of his father’s legacy are “deeply worrisome for all North Carolinians and all Americans who oppose racism and bigotry.”

King has pledged to campaign this week in North Carolina “on behalf of Josh Stein and local candidates who will stand up for women, Black and Brown North Carolinians and everyone else who Mark Robinson chooses to disparage.”

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must stay on the North Carolina ballot, despite requests from he and his new party We the People that he be removed.

The state Board of Elections voted along party lines to keep Kennedy on the ballot, with Democrats citing the state’s Sept. 6 deadline for absentee ballot mailing to begin, and the fact that most counties had started printing ballots.

Kennedy announced last Friday that he was suspending his presidential campaign and endorsing former President Donald Trump. He said he was going to take his name off the ballot in 10 battleground states. But his decision runs up against the deadlines in several states for dropping out.

The Kennedy campaign, through the We the People party, spent months trying to get him on the North Carolina ballot.

Thursday’s Board of Elections vote represented a turnabout in the consideration of Kennedy’s candidacy. The two Republican members who argued passionately this summer for Kennedy to be allowed on the ballot fought Thursday to take him off, and the three Democrats who were skeptical about letting him on in the first place voted to keep him.

“People are already printing their sample ballots,” said Board member Siobhan Millen, who was the only member to vote against certifying We the People as a political party. Party certification allowed Kennedy to appear on the ballot.

“The statutory deadline of Sept. 6 can’t be ignored just because of the capricious behavior of one party’s candidate — one party, one person,” she said. “I think this whole episode has been a farce. I feel bad for anyone who’s been deceived.”

State Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell told the board that 67 of the state’s 100 counties have received their absentee ballots, or will by the end of Thursday. Requests for absentee ballots is high, she said, and counties are preparing to start mailing them to voters next Friday, a date set by state law. The company that prints most ballots estimated that 80 of the 93 counties they work for had begun preparing ballots and election coding.

That single company has printed 1.73 million ballots, she said.

“When we talk about printing ballots, we’re not talking about pressing ‘copy’ on a Xerox machine,” Brinson Bell said.

Republican Board member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV questioned Brinson Bell’s instructions to county boards to continue printing ballots after Kennedy’s Friday afternoon news conference.

She defended her instructions to counties. She said she couldn’t advise counties to stop printing ballots at the risk of missing the Sept. 6 deadline based on a press conference.

“We knew of a press conference by Mr. Kennedy on Friday of last week. However, Mr. Kennedy did not file as an unaffiliated candidate, and we had not heard of a decision from the We the People Party based upon his press conference. So, I instructed the countries to continue with their proofing processes. I copied the Board on that,” she said. “Our staff and counties continue to work through the weekends as we would, so that we could meet the statutory deadline.”

Eggers said he received a copy of a letter Kennedy signed asking to be removed from the ballot. Kennedy’s wishes should be considered, he said.

Because Kennedy is a party nominee and not an independent candidate, he cannot remove himself.

Board member Jeff Carmon, a Democrat, said he would agree with Eggers if Kennedy wasn’t now acting as an independent when he fought to be recognized as the nominee of a party.

“Him acting as an independent and we taking that into consideration just goes against everything we’ve gone through for the past few weeks.

The We the People North Carolina executive board voted 4-1 on Wednesday request Kennedy and his running mate Nicole Shanahan be removed from the ballot.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump enjoy nearly equal favorability ratings among North Carolina’s registered voters, according to an Elon Poll released Tuesday.

About 44% of voters had very favorable or somewhat favorable impressions of Harris, and 46% had very favorable or somewhat favorable impressions of Trump. Each was viewed unfavorably by half the voters.

In the governor’s race, Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson favorability lagged far behind that of Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein. Robinson was viewed favorably by 30% and unfavorably by half the voters. Stein was viewed favorably by 44% of voters and unfavorably by 29%.

More Republicans than Democrats said they would split their votes for president and governor. Sixteen percent of Republicans said they would split their tickets, while 6% of Democrats said they would select candidates of different parties.

This is the first Elon Poll of the 2024 election year. The poll was conducted from Aug. 2-9, after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race but before the Democratic National Convention.

North Carolina’s status as a swing state is sometimes questioned, considering Republican presidential candidates have won three times in a row, Professor Jason Husser, Elon University Poll director, said in a news release.

“Our data show that North Carolina’s electoral votes remain up for grabs by either party, but winning those votes will involve navigating a divided, complex and engaged electorate,” Husser said.

More than half of the respondents said the events of the summer, including the assassination attempt on Trump and Biden’s decision to drop out, made them more interested in voting.

The poll reveals racial and gender divides in both the presidential and gubernatorial races.

Half of male voters had favorable impressions of Trump, while 39% of male voters had favorable impressions of Harris.

Among women, 47% had favorable impressions of Harris, while 43% viewed Trump favorably.

Seventy-two percent of Black voters had favorable impressions of Harris, while 17% had favorable impressions of Trump.

Fifty-four percent of white voters had favorable impressions of Trump, while 35% of white voters said the same of Harris.

Stein’s favorability far outpaces Robinson’s with women and Black voters. Twenty-three percent of women have favorable impressions of Robinson, while 46% have favorable impressions of Stein.

Favorable views among men are about the same for each candidate: 40% for Robinson and 41% for Stein.

Robinson is the state’s first Black lieutenant governor. In his speech at the Republican National Convention, he talked about becoming the state’s first Black governor. Most Black voters, however, view him unfavorably.

Sixty-four percent of Black voters had unfavorable impressions of Robinson, while 14% had favorable impressions.

Sixty-five percent of Black voters had favorable impressions of Stein, while 5% viewed him unfavorably.

The state’s economy emerged as the top issue influencing voters’ choice for governor. Ninety percent said it was extremely or very important.

Democrats and Republicans reported vastly different experiences with their personal finances over the last three years.

Forty percent of Democrats said their personal financial situations had improved since Biden took office, while 17% said they had gotten worse.

For Republicans, 3% said their personal financial situations had improved since Biden took office, and 80% said they had gotten worse.

Elon University Poll sponsored the survey and the firm YouGov conducted it. The poll had a sample size of 800 and a 3.86% margin of error.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.

Republicans want the courts to kick 225,000 voters off the North Carolina rolls by the end of next week.

The North Carolina Republican Party and the Republican National Committee said in a lawsuit filed Monday in Wake County that the State Board of Elections failed to act when resident Carol Snow complained about violations of a federal law called the Help America Vote Act. Snow said the state had used registration forms that failed to require a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number.

Republicans and far-right groups are seeking voter purges in states around the country, including the swing states of Arizona and Pennsylvania.

In an email, state Board of Elections spokesman Pat Gannon said the lawsuit asks the impossible. Federal law prohibits removing voters so close to the election, he said.

“Despite being aware of their alleged claims months ago, the plaintiffs have waited until two weeks before the start of voting to seek a court-ordered program to remove thousands of existing registered voters. Federal law itself prevents such removal programs if they take place after the 90th day before a federal election, which was August 7. So, the lawsuit is asking for a rapid-fire voter removal program that violates federal law.”

This is the second lawsuit Republicans have filed against the state Board of Elections in less than a week.

Snow has made several claims about inaccurate voter rolls this year, telling the state board that registration lists are not adequately maintained. Snow belongs to a group called NC Audit Force.

“Defendants’ failure to require necessary HAVA identification information before processing and accepting hundreds of thousands of voter registration forms allowed untold numbers of ineligible voters to register. Now, those ineligible voters could vote in the upcoming November 5, 2024 election and beyond,” the GOP lawsuit says.

If the elections board can’t purge the voters, Republicans want the court to make voters who did not provide the required documents when they registered to cast provisional ballots. Those ballots would be counted only after the elections board received and verified the necessary information.

Gannon wrote that the lawsuit dramatically overstates alleged problems with voter registrations.

“The lawsuit also misunderstands the data and vastly overstates any alleged problems with voter registrations,” he said. “If a voter does not have a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number populated in the voter registration database, that does not necessarily mean that they were allowed to register improperly.”

Voters who did not provide driver’s license or Social Security information with their registration will still be asked for photo ID when they vote, Gannon said.

Ann Webb, policy director at Common Cause NC, called the lawsuit “meritless and dangerous.”

It is not designed to fix a real problem, Webb said in a statement, but to “spread disinformation that undermines public confidence in our elections while fomenting anti-immigrant hate. If the self-serving politicians behind this suit get their way, hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians could have their voter registration unfairly thrown out in direct violation of federal law.”

In a statement issued Tuesday morning, state House Democratic Leader Robert Reives blasted the lawsuit as part of an ongoing GOP strategy to use “intimidation, chaos and even outright disenfranchisement” to limit voting rights.

“The same folks who try to rig our legislative and congressional elections with gerrymandered maps now want to rig our statewide elections by purging hundreds of thousands of voters from the voting rolls just weeks before a presidential election,” Reives said.

This story was updated at 12:30 pm Tuesday.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s job firing up crowds for the Democratic presidential ticket this year would appear to be at odds with the subdued demeanor of a longtime North Carolina office holder not given to verbal flourishes.

He got audiences going in a call-and-response, with the crowd shouting “No” when Cooper asked if they wanted a second Donald Trump term.

Cooper’s measured responses to questions Monday morning on whether he would consider becoming Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate now that President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race was the Cooper that North Carolinians are much more used to hearing.

“I appreciate people talking about me, but I think the focus right now needs to be on her this week,” Cooper said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “She needs to concentrate on making sure that she secures this nomination and gets this campaign ready to go.”

After Biden bowed out on Sunday, Cooper thanked Biden, calling him “among our nation’s finest presidents,” on X, formerly Twitter, and endorsed Harris.

Cooper, 67, is serving his second term as governor and cannot run for a third. Even before Biden announced Sunday he was leaving the race, there was speculation about a role for Cooper in the second term of a Biden administration.

Cooper’s steady climb through North Carolina’s political ranks and his position as a Democratic governor in a swing state has pundits measuring his potential as Harris’ running mate. US Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear are also mentioned as potential vice presidential candidates who could join Harris on the ticket.

Keeping healthcare and public schools in the forefront

Introducing Biden and Harris at North Carolina rallies gave Cooper a chance to tout Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, a premier accomplishment of his administration. He announced at a news conference this month that more than 500,000 residents had enrolled in the expanded program. At campaign rallies, he paints the image of Trump ripping a health insurance card out of someone’s hand.

Cooper started fighting for Medicaid expansion even before he officially took office after defeating one-term Republican Pat McCrory in 2016. Leading Republicans in the legislature dismissed all calls for Medicaid expansion for years. Cooper kept health care and Medicaid expansion at the forefront, even though the state was not able to offer more people health insurance under Medicaid expansion without the GOP-controlled legislature’s approval.

Republicans reconsidered after the American Rescue Plan Biden signed in 2021 included financial incentives for states that had not yet expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans put Medicaid expansion in the budget they passed last year. Cooper allowed the budget to become law without his signature because it included Medicaid expansion — even though it was stuffed with items he did not want such as an expansion of private school vouchers.

Cooper has repeatedly denounced private school vouchers and built his education agenda on increasing spending on public education and teacher raises. But his tenure as governor in large part has been shaped by issues involving health, health insurance, and disputes with Republicans in the legislature over policy priorities.

Tested by the COVID pandemic

The 2020 campaign for governor revolved largely around his responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cooper clashed with Republican legislators over health-related business closures and the duration of public school closures.

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest challenged Cooper with a campaign that leaned heavily on lifting COVID restrictions and opening public schools. Forest sued over some of Cooper’s COVID executive orders, but was shot down in court. Forest went on to lose the governor’s race to Cooper by more than four percentage points.

Bar owners had more success challenging Cooper’s COVID rules. They sued over Cooper’s decision to keep bars closed while allowing restaurants to open with capacity limits a few months into the pandemic. The state Court of Appeals ruled last April that Cooper had violated bar owners’ rights.

Nationally, North Carolina’s handling of the pandemic was praised by the Biden administration. Biden appointed Dr. Mandy Cohen, who was Cooper’s first Health and Human Services secretary, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A weak office needed a negotiator

The governor’s office in North Carolina was designed to be weak. North Carolina governors don’t have a line-item veto and cannot veto redistricting bills.

Republicans have controlled the legislature for Cooper’s entire tenure as governor. In the years Republicans did not have supermajorities in the House and Senate — and were not able to override his vetoes — Cooper was able to push for negotiations on issues and stifle bills he opposed.

Convincing Democrats to uphold his vetoes meant Cooper “was able to participate in the discussion,” said state Senate Democratic leader Dan Blue of Raleigh.

Cooper had “a profound impact on where the state was going,” Blue said. “He moderated the Republicans’ hardline positions on multiple occasions.”

Cooper’s supporters note that he has never lost a race from the time he won a House seat in 1986 after beating a 12-term Democratic incumbent. Cooper repeatedly won statewide office while Democratic presidential candidates most often fell short. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina was Barack Obama in 2008.

Cooper grew up on a tobacco farm in Nash County. His mother was a teacher and his father a lawyer.

He attended UNC Chapel Hill on a Morehead Scholarship and received his law degree from UNC.

He is a devoted fan of the UNC Tar Heels and Carolina Hurricanes NHL team.

A Charlotte Observer article from 1988 described Cooper as a “star of the legislative basketball team” who kept a low profile in his first term.

“I would like to serve between three and five terms in the legislature,” the article quotes Cooper saying. “During that time I would have been able to make an impact and accomplish things I want to accomplish.

“And 15 years from now I think I could look to some other office or make a living practicing law.”

After a stint in the state House, Cooper was appointed to a Senate seat in 1991, where he rose to become the chamber’s Majority Leader.

He won the first of four successful races for state Attorney General in 2000.

He rejected calls to run for governor in 2008, and resisted a push for him to challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole that year.

North Carolina Democrats are wondering whether Cooper’s career ladder leads to the vice presidency.

After they voted to endorse Harris for president on Sunday, state party chair Anderson Clayton reported that North Carolina delegates to the Democratic National Convention “are enthusiastically supportive of Gov. Cooper becoming the nominee for our vice president as well.”

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.