Gov. Roy Cooper is wrapping up his final weeks in office, and he made a farewell speech Wednesday in his home county.
Cooper highlighted his record over eight years during the speech at Nash Community College in Rocky Mount. He helped pass Medicaid expansion after initial opposition from Republicans in the legislature.
"I went from getting sued in my first few weeks in office by Republican legislative leaders for trying to expand Medicaid to welcoming those same leaders to the mansion on a beautiful spring day, six years later, to sign the Medicaid expansion deal into law," he told a crowd of family members, administration officials and other supporters. "Talk about climbing a tall mountain. We did it together."
The policy change unlocked federal funding to expand healthcare coverage to 600,000 people who previously didn't qualify for Medicaid.
He also noted he pushed for more education funding, although lawmakers often approved amounts that were lower than he requested.
"We succeeded in pushing the General Assembly further than they otherwise would have gone on education investments, expanding North Carolina pre-K, reinstating the Teacher Fellows program, and we've gotten public school teachers a total of 19% in raises over the years 鈥� obviously not nearly enough, but important to get," he said.
Cooper's power has been limited by the GOP legislature, but he says he's been able to make progress on clean energy and other issues. He noted that when he took office in 2017, the House Bill 2 "bathroom bill" that required transgender people to use the bathroom that matched their birth certificate was prompting economic boycotts. He soon negotiated an agreement to repeal the law.
Fellow Democrat Josh Stein will take over the governor's office in January, and he's keeping on several top officials from the Cooper administration, he announced this week.
Cooper didn't announce his future plans in Wednesday's speech but suggested he's not retiring yet. "We're not done," he said at the end of the speech. "I'm not done."
One possibility is a 2026 U.S. Senate run 鈥� something he's said he'll consider in the months after he leaves office. He'd likely be Democrats' top choice to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis.
