Senate Leader Phil Berger Stopped Former Governor Roy Cooper’s Radical Agenda

The recent hearing on the high-profile Supreme Court case on Title IX and whether or not state governments can protect women’s sports provides an opportunity to reflect on the history of the issue in North Carolina. The simple fact is, without steady Republican leadership, particularly for Senate Leader Phil Berger, former Governor Roy Cooper would have led a social policy nearly identical to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.  

The 2016 election was defined by the controversy around House Bill Two. In response to Charlotte’s radical agenda, Republican legislators passed House Bill Two, which made it the policy for public facilities to have bathrooms and private areas corresponding with biological sex and prevent municipalities from passing radical social policies. Liberal activists, including then-Attorney General Roy Cooper, pressured businesses into boycotting North Carolina. Democrats wanted to turn the conversation away from social policy toward economic impacts.  

Keeping with his character, Cooper’s position on HB2 followed the polling. He opposed the HB2 and the economic impact to the state but remained completely silent on actual policy on public safety and restrooms. After his narrow victory, Cooper wanted to advance a liberal agenda on transgender rights, but then met resistance from Senate Leader Phil Berger, and the Republican General Assembly.  Eventually, Republicans and Cooper reached a deal on the issue, that the legacy media and Team Cooper tried to push as full repeal of HB2. But here is how liberal groups across the state framed the so-called repeal. 

• Victory Institute President & CEO Aisha Moodie-Mills also weighed saying that in signing HB142 in to law, “[NC Governor Roy Cooper] threw the LGBT community under the bus.” 

• North Carolina ACLU said, “But let us be clear – this is no compromise. This is no repeal. This is HB2.0 and is perhaps more insidious in its targeting of LGBTQ – and particularly of trans and gender non-conforming – people. It is a backroom deal that shows no input from the community, that shows no leadership from lawmakers, that shows a callous disregard for the basic humanity of the trans and gender non-conforming people that call North Carolina home.” 

• NC NAACP President said, “This is a bait and switch. We fought against this tactic when this same legislature sought to strip power from the Governor–disregarding their constitutional obligations in an effort to silence the voice of the voters.” 

• Human Rights Coalition said, ““After more than a year of inaction, today North Carolina lawmakers doubled-down on discrimination,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “This new law does not repeal HB2. Instead, it institutes a statewide prohibition on equality by banning non-discrimination protections across North Carolina and fuels the flames of anti-transgender hate. Each and every lawmaker who supported this bill has betrayed the LGBTQ community. HRC will explore every legal action to combat this dangerous legislation, and we urge all businesses, sports leagues and entertainers who have fought against HB2 to continue standing strong with the LGBTQ community attacked by this hateful law.” 

The outrage across the board from the groups pushing radical gender ideology, demonstrate that Senate Leader Phil Berger and Republicans in the General Assembly effectively neutralized Cooper’s agenda.  

As the political environment on the issue shift, Republicans in the General Assembly led to charge to promote public policies that protected women’s sports and promoted public safety. In contrast, Governor Roy Cooper supports biological males in women's sports, bathrooms, and lockers and genital mutilation surgeries for kids.  

The policy issues surrounding the trans agenda provide some clear examples of how Berger and Republicans in the General Assembly foiled Cooper’s radical socialist policies. These fights happened in Raleigh, but now that Cooper is running for Senate, Republicans will have the opportunity to fully inform every North Carolinian about Cooper’s radical record, which was thankfully stopped by Republicans.