Roy Cooper Doesn’t Care About North Carolinians; That Is Why He Failed Us as Governor
After several decades in office, one thing is clear about former Governor Roy Cooper, who is now seeking a seat in the United States Senate. Cooper does not care about regular people; he only cares about appeasing his liberal allies. When North Carolinians were forced to rely on his leadership, he failed in his duty because he simply does not care about the average person.
As Governor, Cooper claimed his mission statement was that he wanted “to build a North Carolina where people were better educated and healthier, with more money in their pockets and opportunities to live with purpose and abundance. The simple truth is that his record showed that he failed to deliver on this promise, because he focused on placating his liberal allies.
During the pandemic, Cooper closed public schools across North Carolina. He refused to reopen because of political pressure from teacher unions. North Carolina’s public schools were only reopened after Republicans in the General Assembly outmaneuvered him. North Carolina’s public schools were closed substantially longer than Republican-leaning states, and test scores continued to show massive learning loss.
Cooper abused his executive authority during the pandemic to keep North Carolina closed down. Thousands of small business owners across North Carolina suffered because Cooper followed the politics popular with his left-wing base instead of the science.
In 2023, North Carolina Republicans led the charge in providing universal school choice opportunities. Allowing parents and families to decide what school worked. Instead of celebrating this victory, Cooper declared a “State of Emergency,” shouting hyperbolic claims, encouraging families to compromise on their kids’ education for the sake of protecting progressive institutions.
Despite his bluster, Governor Cooper oversaw the highest healthcare costs in the country.
As Governor Cooper’s administration was rife with incompetence. Here are some examples:
The NC Division of Health Benefits (DHB) allowed providers with suspended licenses or Non-Practice Agreements (NPAs) to remain enrolled, with some continuing to serve Medicaid patients and receive payments. Even after a follow-up audit, the issue persisted.
Under Cooper, North Carolina's Division of Motor Vehicles hit 100% of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) benchmarks in 2024 but failed to meet several core performance goals related to safety, infrastructure, and fiscal responsibility. And the Department of Transportation overspent its budget by $742 million. If he cared about sound fiscal management, these problems would have been addressed before the independent auditor discovered them.
The Cooper administration lost $50 million to fraudulent unemployment payments, including to illegal aliens. Cooper's Division of Employment Security applied for and received a $6.8 million federal grant to address overpayment issues, but it took three years to implement a work search repository. DES refused to "identify a specific root cause for delayed implementation." Ultimately, only $12.1 million of the $47.2 million in fraudulent payments was recovered.
North Carolinians rely on state government to provide law and order and to enforce policies that protect the community. Instead of doing his duty, Cooper enacted a slew of policies that endangered North Carolinians from Murphy to Manteo.
As the panic of the pandemic subsided, Cooper entered into an appeasement settlement with his far-left allies to release well over 4,000 criminals early into North Carolina communities. Updated reporting shows that nearly half of those individuals went on to be charged with additional crimes, including murder and sexual assault.
During the George Floyd riots, Cooper fled the Governor's Mansion but delayed deploying the National Guard to restore order in the cities. Safety for Cooper, but not for the citizens.
At the close of his term, Cooper was celebrated by progressive groups for commuting the sentences of hardened criminals. Ending his time as Governor on a soft-on-crime note that defined his time in office.
Every Governor faces the challenges posed by natural disasters like hurricanes. As he took office, Cooper promised hurricane victims, “help is on the way for storm survivors and we’re pulling together to get the job done.” His record tells a different story.
“Cooper’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR), the agency tasked with leading responses to Matthew and Florence, labeled a “case study in dysfunction,” was plagued by mismanagement, with a 2022 report finding the agency “could not provide reasonable assurance that $2.5 million of the $5.4 million of federal assistance was spent properly.”
North Carolina was preparing for Hurricane Helene to hit on September 26th, 2024. On September 25, 2024, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper was at a liberal conference in New York City, not in North Carolina, leading efforts to prepare for the storm. Under North Carolina’s constitution, if the Governor is physically out of the state, the Lieutenant Governor becomes the acting Governor. To this day, it is unclear if there was proper communication from Governor Cooper’s office to the Republican Lieutenant Governor to ensure smooth operation of North Carolina’s emergency preparedness. What is clear is that over 100 North Carolinians lost their lives their life under Cooper’s watch.
In the aftermath of Helene, Cooper did not stop playing politics to focus on helping people. Cooper went out of his way to praise Vice President Kamala Harris for her response to the storm. The same Harris who received substantial criticism for claiming to be on calls about storm recovery without even bothering to plug in her headphones. Cooper never appointed a disaster recovery coordinator despite the recommendation from FEMA, and he vetoed key Hurricane Helene recovery legislation. While North Carolinians were suffering, Cooper never stopped playing politics to focus on helping people.
Bottom Line: North Carolinians deserve a Senator who cares about them. Cooper’s record disqualifies him from the Senate because over the decades Cooper only cared about appeasing his donors, not serving the people of North Carolina.
