CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper delivered his farewell speech Wednesday, celebrating what could be the end of a three-decade career in state politics.
Cooper hosted a large crowd of Democratic Party leaders and longtime acquaintances for a speech in his native Nash County. Wednesday's remarks were the final public comments Cooper will make as North Carolina's governor as he wraps up his second term in Raleigh.
"Waking up every day to lead the state I love so much has been an unparalleled honor," Cooper said in prepared comments before his speech.
Cooper, who first became governor by defeating Pat McCrory in 2016, has been floated as a possible U.S. Senate candidate in the 2026 midterms. He was also briefly in the mix to be Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate in the 2024 election before bowing out to focus on helping Attorney General Josh Stein defeat Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in the race for North Carolina's next governor.
Cooper highlighted some of his accomplishments as governor, including expanding Medicaid. State officials say the expansion brings over $500 million a month to North Carolina for health insurance. Over 600,000 people enrolled within the first year, something Cooper called a "remarkable accomplishment."
He began his remarks by recalling when he first took office, when North Carolina was in the middle of a national political firestorm over the controversial House Bill 2, otherwise known as the "bathroom bill." The law banned local governments from enacting pro-LGBTQ ordinances and led to several major companies, musicians and sports leagues pulling out of the state. It also caused the NBA to pull the All-Star Game from Charlotte and the ACC Championship Game was played in Florida in 2016.
"North Carolina's reputation was in tatters," Cooper said. "There was one intangible impact that weighed heavily on me. It was that so many people told me, 'This isn't who we are, this isn't what our state is about.' So many North Carolinians lost their belief in our state, I knew we had to turn that around fast and I knew we could"
"This was a dream a decade in the making that finally became a reality and also unlocked almost a billion dollars in new investments in mental health and addiction treatment that we know go hand-in-hand with staying healthy," Cooper said.
Cooper has said his final months in office would be dedicated to Hurricane Helene relief for western North Carolina. Still, a public power struggle between the governor and the Republican-led General Assembly brought on a lawsuit from Cooper and Gov.-elect Josh Stein over a controversial aid bill that also strips powers from certain high-ranking Democrats.
