Governor Cooper at 100 days in office
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Monday marks the first 100 days in office for North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.
His tenure began with a bruising campaign win over former Gov. Pat McCrory that saw ballot recounts and legal challenges.
"The circumstances under which he became governor were pretty controversial. Very, very narrow victory," NC State political science professor Andy Taylor explained.
And then Cooper faced a challenge to his power from the Republican-led General Assembly that included forcing his cabinet picks to get Senate confirmation and a sharp reduction in the number of appointees he can make to state government.
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But despite those early hurdles, the Cooper camp says he has moved forward with his agenda.
"Governor Cooper ran saying he was going to create good jobs, start to repair our reputation, change the priorities in Raleigh. I think that's exactly what he's done," offered spokesperson Ford Porter.
There have been losses for the governor, including seeing his veto of a return to partisan elections for state judges being overridden, but there have been victories too.
"We've seen the governor work with the legislature to do things like repeal HB2, about the opioid crisis, began to help communities recover from Hurricane Matthew and also, fight them when we need to, sort of keep them focused on the issues that matter," said Porter.
The battle over HB2 ended with the return of the ACC and NCAA tournaments, and with the NBA also considering Charlotte again for an All-Star game. Those wins for cooper don't please everyone on the right or the left.
"And we need to keep fighting to expand LGBT rights in the wake of this HB2 repeal. Governor Cooper says he won't quit until we have statewide non-discrimination protections for LGBT North Carolinians," said Cooper.
All-in-all, it's been a busy 100 days.
