73 Facts About Pat McCrory

Patrick Lloyd McCrory was born on October 17,1956 and is an American businessman, politician and radio host who served as the 74th governor of North Carolina from 2013 to 2017.

Pat McCrory became the first Mayor of Charlotte to win the state's highest office, as well as the first Republican North Carolina Governor since 1993.

In 2016, Pat McCrory lost his reelection campaign to Democrat Roy Cooper, the Attorney General of North Carolina.

In 2022, Pat McCrory ran for the US Senate and lost the Republican primary to US Representative Ted Budd.

Pat McCrory was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Audrey Mona and Rollin John Pat McCrory.

Pat McCrory's family moved to North Carolina when he was a child.

Pat McCrory was raised Presbyterian and his family attended First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro.

Pat McCrory graduated in 1974 from Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, North Carolina.

Pat McCrory attended Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he received degrees in political science and education in 1978.

Pat McCrory was active in the Student Government Association and was part of a conservative backlash to the growing "hippie" culture at Catawba in the mid-1970s.

In 2001, Pat McCrory gave the graduation keynote address at his alma mater, Catawba College.

Pat McCrory has served as a member of Catawba College's Board of Trustees.

Pat McCrory is a 2014 Young Leader Alumni member of the American Swiss Foundation.

Since 2017, he has hosted the "Pat McCrory Show with Bo Thompson" on WBT 1110AM in Charlotte, NC.

Pat McCrory began his political career in Charlotte in 1989 when he was elected an At-Large City Councilman.

Pat McCrory announced in late 2008, shortly after his gubernatorial campaign, that he would not seek an eighth term.

Pat McCrory established a Sidewalk Policy, which required sidewalks in every new subdivision and provided funding for sidewalks in neighborhoods without them, in order to encourage walking.

Pat McCrory worked to integrate bike lanes into the city's transportation policy, establishing 42 miles of bike lanes throughout the city.

In 2003, Pat McCrory received the national Homeownership Hero Award, recognizing his work in leading Charlotte to have one of the highest homeownership rates in the country.

Pat McCrory founded the Mayor's Mentoring Alliance in 1995 and has personally served as a mentor to two youths.

Pat McCrory has served as the honorary chair for the Charlotte chapter of the Alzheimer's Foundation and the Arthritis Foundation.

Pat McCrory reportedly commissioned a poll to test the waters for a run for governor in November 2007, shortly after his seventh mayoral re-election victory, but well after other Republican gubernatorial candidates had begun campaigning.

Pat McCrory announced his candidacy in his hometown of Jamestown on January 15,2008.

Pat McCrory countered with negative ads against his foremost opponent, Sen.

Pat McCrory later referred to the ads as "shameless, inaccurate, and negative".

Perdue and Pat McCrory remained close, with the two often polling in a statistical tie in what was the tightest race for governor in the nation.

The Pat McCrory campaign spent $3.4 million, and an independent expenditure funded by the Republican Governor's association assisted Pat McCrory with a further $6.2 million in spending for attack ads on Perdue.

In October 2008, Pat McCrory received the endorsement of most major newspapers in the state, which typically endorse Democrats.

Pat McCrory went on to work for his brother's consulting firm, and joined the law firm of Moore Van Allen.

Pat McCrory began to pave the way for a possible 2012 gubernatorial campaign by remaining active in the North Carolina Republican Party.

Pat McCrory then announced his candidacy for governor on January 31,2012.

Pat McCrory publicized his positions on the economy and education in two white papers.

Pat McCrory suggested stopping social promotion of some students and creating a new method of grading schools.

Pat McCrory reported raising nearly $3 million more than Dalton for the election cycle to date.

Pat McCrory reported having $3.1 million cash on hand, and Dalton reported $670,356.14.

Pat McCrory faced Cooper in the hotly contested 2016 general election.

On election night, Pat McCrory narrowly trailed Cooper, with fewer than 5,000 votes separating the candidates out of more than 4.6 million cast.

The Pat McCrory campaign filed election protests alleging that voter fraud helped Cooper in 50 counties.

On December 5,2016, Pat McCrory conceded the race to Cooper.

Pat McCrory is the first sitting Governor of North Carolina to lose a bid for reelection since Charles Manly in 1850.

In November 2018, Pat McCrory falsely claimed that there were many North Carolina students who committed voter fraud during the 2016 election.

Pat McCrory said that North Carolina students with out-of-state driving licenses were illegally voting and that voter ID laws would have stopped them; however, it is entirely legal for college students to vote in the state where they are attending college.

Pat McCrory's swearing-in gave the Republicans complete control of state government for the first time since Reconstruction.

Pat McCrory's election marked the first time that Republicans controlled both houses of the General Assembly as well as the governorship since 1870.

From taking office, Pat McCrory had signed into law a number of bills promoting conservative governance.

Pat McCrory signed legislation which made North Carolina the 8th state to cut unemployment benefits since the 2007 start of the Great Recession.

In March 2013, citing concerns about the sustainability of the program, Pat McCrory signed a bill that opted the state out of the expanded Medicaid program of the Affordable Care Act of 2009, which would have provided healthcare coverage to 500,000 North Carolinians.

Pat McCrory proposed managing Medicaid accounts, by enrolling patients in managed-care programs run by private companies.

In May 2013, Pat McCrory signed a North Carolina adaptation of Caylee's Law after receiving unanimous consent in the General Assembly.

Pat McCrory signed into law a bill repealing the state's controversial Racial Justice Act of 2009.

Pat McCrory signed legislation to require voters to present government-issued photo identification in order to vote, repeal same-day voter registration, and reduce the number of days of early voting.

Pat McCrory said the three-judge panel had a liberal makeup, and that 33 states have enacted some form of voter ID requirement.

In July 2013, Pat McCrory signed tax reform legislation that created a modified flat-tax system for the state by specifying a single income-tax rate and a larger standard deduction but eliminating the personal exemption.

In June 2014, Pat McCrory signed the Energy Modernization Act of 2014 into law.

Pat McCrory issued his first veto as governor in August 2013, of a bill that would have required people applying for welfare benefits to pass a drug test.

Pat McCrory later vetoed a bill that extended from 90 days to nine months the amount of time that an employee could work without undergoing a background check in the E-Verify system.

In June 2014, Pat McCrory vetoed a bill because of a provision altering the makeup of the Division of Employment Security Board of Review.

On May 28,2015, Pat McCrory vetoed a bill that would have allowed magistrates with religious objections to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

The next day, Pat McCrory vetoed a variation on an "ag-gag" bill.

Pat McCrory signed the largest education budgets in North Carolina history in 2013 and 2015.

Pat McCrory entered office in 2013 with teacher pay ranked 47th in the nation, and by 2016, the state's ranking moved up 41st in the nation.

Pat McCrory signed the largest teacher pay raise in the nation in 2016, which led to average teacher pay rising to $50,000 per year.

In July 2013, Pat McCrory signed into law legislation which required abortion providers to meet the same standards as surgical centers, allowed health-care providers to decline to perform abortions, and prevented any public health-insurance policy from paying for abortions.

Abortion-rights groups criticized Pat McCrory, who had promised during his campaign that he would not sign new abortion restrictions.

Pat McCrory had been an employee of Duke Energy for 28 years, and critics said his administration had intervened on Duke's behalf to settle lawsuits over environmental violations.

Pat McCrory's lawyer stated that the mistake was based on the lawyer's misunderstanding of the timeframe covered by the earlier disclosures.

On March 8,2015, the Pat McCrory administration fined Duke Energy $25 million for years of groundwater pollution, the largest fine for environmental damage ever imposed by the state.

Megan Davies, a state Division of Public Health epidemiologist who was section chief and Rudo's supervisor, resigned because of the manner in which the department and Pat McCrory's administration disputed Rudo's testimony.

Pat McCrory had asked council members not to pass the ordinance.

The speaker of the House and lieutenant governor invoked a rarely used constitutional provision to call themselves into session, without Pat McCrory calling it, by collecting sufficient signatures from legislators.

On several occasions, Pat McCrory pushed for a deal that would repeal HB2 in exchange for the City of Charlotte voting to repeal their ordinance.

Separately, Pat McCrory filed suit against the federal government, asking a court to find the state law constitutional.

In 2022, Pat McCrory unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination in the US Senate election to succeed the retiring Republican Richard Burr.