RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina’s next governor campaigned on a promise to work if elected on bending back state government’s recent right-ward turn, with the repeal of a law limiting LGBT rights near the top of his to-do list.
But Democrat Roy Cooper, who will take office after Republican incumbent Pat McCrory finally conceded Monday in their close race, will face an uphill struggle to do any of that because the state legislature probably won’t want to go along.
Republicans in the state House and Senate will continue to hold veto-proof majorities when they reconvene next month, a few days after Cooper – the outgoing attorney general – gets sworn in to his new job. GOP leaders are resolute to keep their conservative policies intact and in defending the LGBT law McCrory signed known as House Bill 2, refusing to change it unless it’s on their terms.
“It’s clear it’s on social issues where Cooper and the Republican leadership are going to disagree the most,” said David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith College in Raleigh. “His first year could be difficult.”
Cooper’s victory was confirmed nearly four weeks after Election Day as McCrory announced in a video message it appeared Cooper was the winner.