56 Facts About Roy Cooper

Roy Asberry Cooper III is an American attorney and politician who served as the 75th governor of North Carolina from 2017 to 2025.

Roy Cooper began his career as a lawyer and in 1986 was elected to represent the 72nd district in the North Carolina House of Representatives.

Roy Cooper was elected North Carolina Attorney General in 2000 and reelected in 2004,2008, and 2012, serving for nearly 16 years, the longest tenure for an attorney general in the state's history.

Roy Cooper defeated Republican incumbent Pat McCrory for the governorship in a close race in the 2016 election.

Roy Cooper was reelected in 2020 against the Republican nominee, Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest.

The Republican-dominated legislature passed bills in a special session to reduce the power of the governor's office before he took office, but Roy Cooper continued to emphasize increases in education and healthcare funding throughout his tenure, culminating in successful negotiations of statewide Medicaid expansion.

Roy Asberry Cooper III was born in Nashville, North Carolina, on June 13,1957, to Beverly Thorne, a teacher and Roy Asberry Cooper II, a lawyer and Democratic Party operative who was a close advisor to Jim Hunt; he later co-chaired Hunt's successful 1976 gubernatorial campaign.

Roy Cooper attended public schools and worked on his parents' tobacco farm during summers.

Roy Cooper attended Northern Nash High School and as a senior was selected to represent Nash County in the Youth Legislative Assembly.

Roy Cooper received the Morehead Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for his undergraduate studies.

Roy Cooper earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1982.

Roy Cooper was the youngest person ever to serve on the board.

Roy Cooper was a member of the Rocky Mount Chamber of Commerce and UNC-Chapel Hill's Board of Visitors.

In 1984, Roy Cooper served as the Rocky Mount and Nash County chairman of Lauch Faircloth's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign.

On November 19,1985, Roy Cooper filed to run for the North Carolina House of Representatives in the 72nd district.

Roy Cooper challenged 12-term incumbent Allen Barbee in the Democratic primary and ran on a campaign of supporting agriculture and resolving a school merger dispute in Nash County.

Roy Cooper continued to practice law while serving in the legislature.

Roy Cooper voted with all House Republicans and 15 Democrats in favor of an unsuccessful attempt to amend the constitution to grant the governor veto power over legislation.

In February 1991, after State Senator Jim Ezzell was killed in a car crash, Roy Cooper was appointed to the Senate to serve the remainder of Ezzell's term representing the 10th district, which encompassed parts of Edgecombe, Halifax, Nash, and Wilson Counties.

In 1995, Roy Cooper negotiated a compromise bill to schedule a referendum to amend the constitution and grant the governor veto power.

In January 2000, Roy Cooper filed with the state Board of Elections to launch a campaign for North Carolina attorney general.

Roy Cooper took office on January 6,2001, and was reelected in 2004.

Roy Cooper was easily reelected in 2008, defeating Republican Bob Crumley and garnering more votes than any other statewide candidate that year.

Roy Cooper ran unopposed for a fourth term in 2012, and received 2,828,941 votes.

In 2001, Roy Cooper initiated legislation that established new mentoring and tutoring programs for middle and high school students out on short-term suspension.

In January 2007, when Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong asked to be recused from dealing with the Duke lacrosse case, Roy Cooper's office assumed responsibility for the case.

Days after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, Roy Cooper created the Campus Safety Task Force to analyze school shootings and make policy recommendations to help the government prevent and respond to them.

In 2011 Cooper argued his first case before the United States Supreme Court, JD B v North Carolina, a case related to Miranda rights in juvenile cases.

In 2014, after a major coal ash spill in the Dan River, then-Governor Pat McCrory accused Roy Cooper of politicizing the incident after Roy Cooper criticized Duke Energy, the company responsible for the spill.

McCrory later accused Roy Cooper of "fighting against" efforts to clean up the spill, a claim WRAL-TV called "nonexistent".

Roy Cooper ran for governor of North Carolina in the 2016 election against incumbent Republican Pat McCrory.

Roy Cooper denounced the law as unconstitutional and refused to defend it in court in his capacity as attorney general.

When initial election results showed Roy Cooper leading, McCrory claimed without evidence that the election had been manipulated by voter fraud.

Out of 4.7 million total ballots, Roy Cooper won by 10,227 votes.

On December 5,2019, Roy Cooper announced his candidacy for reelection.

Roy Cooper was sworn in as governor on January 1,2017, in a small ceremony.

Roy Cooper's planned public inauguration was canceled due to a snowstorm.

Roy Cooper signed bills to allow domestic violence protective orders granted by a judge to fully go into effect even when they are under appeal and to expand the state's "revenge porn" law from cases involving former lovers to those involving strangers.

On July 26,2017, Roy Cooper signed a bill to mount cameras on school buses in order to discourage drivers from illegally passing stopped buses.

On March 6,2019, Roy Cooper proposed a $25.2 billion budget for the year.

Roy Cooper said that he was confident he could get the legislature, without enough Republican members to override a veto, to implement some of his ideas.

On February 11,2020, Roy Cooper announced the creation of a Novel Coronavirus Task Force for North Carolina ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 27,2023, Roy Cooper signed into law landmark legislation expanding Medicaid after the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed the bill through both houses, despite almost a decade of GOP opposition.

On December 31,2024, a day before leaving office, Roy Cooper commuted the sentences of 15 inmates on North Carolina's death row.

Roy Cooper vetoed a bill on April 21,2017, to reduce the size of the North Carolina Court of Appeals by three judges.

Roy Cooper vetoed a bill on April 21,2017, that would create a new State Board of Elections split evenly between the Republicans and the Democrats.

Roy Cooper vetoed a bill that would limit individuals' ability to sue hog farms.

Roy Cooper said the proposed bill included "provisions that infringe upon the governor's ability to faithfully execute the laws, including the administration of this Act, as required by the Constitution, and violating the separation of powers".

In July 2017, Roy Cooper vetoed a bill to authorize nonprofit organizations to operate "game nights", saying it would unintentionally create a new opportunity for the video poker industry.

Roy Cooper vetoed the bill due to a provision that made campaign finance investigations less public, but the General Assembly overrode his veto.

In total, during his first two years in office, Roy Cooper vetoed 28 bills, 23 of which were overridden by the legislature.

In May 2019, Roy Cooper vetoed a bill that proposed punishments in the form of prison time and fines against physicians and nurses who do not resuscitate newborns that survive an abortion.

Roy Cooper said that the "bill is an unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients" and that laws "already protect newborn babies".

Roy Cooper is married to Kristin Cooper, who worked as a guardian ad litem for foster children in Wake County.

Roy Cooper has taught Sunday school classes, serving as a deacon and elder at White Memorial Presbyterian Church, and is an avid fan of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes.

Roy Cooper explained that the former is a local pronunciation of "Cooper" in Eastern North Carolina, where he grew up in Nash County, and his name was always said this way until he went to college.