Pat McCrory

Patrick Lloyd McCrory (born October 17, 1956) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 74th governor of North Carolina from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 53rd mayor of Charlotte from 1995 to 2009. To date, he is North Carolina's most recent Republican governor, and the last Republican mayor of Charlotte.

While serving as mayor of Charlotte, McCrory served on the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council from 2002 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He was the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina in the 2008 general election and was defeated by Lieutenant Governor Bev Perdue, the Democratic nominee. McCrory was again the Republican nominee in the 2012 gubernatorial election and won with 55 percent of the vote. McCrory became the first Mayor of Charlotte to win the state's highest office, as well as the first Republican to win the governorship of North Carolina since 1988.

In 2016, McCrory came to national attention after signing the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act ("HB2"), sometimes called the transgender bathroom bill. Among other provisions, HB2 prevented local governing bodies from establishing their own anti-discrimination statutes. It declared that in government buildings, individuals may use only the restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificates, preventing transgender people who have not altered their birth certificates from using the restroom consistent with their gender identity. The United States Department of Justice, in addition to several private citizens, filed lawsuits against McCrory and the state regarding HB2. Over 100 corporations voiced their opposition to HB2, notably to the elements that limited protections for LGBT individuals. In 2017, economists estimated that HB2 had negatively impacted GDP in the state of North Carolina by an amount between $450 and $630 million, or 0.1% of the state's annual gross domestic product. HB2 was partially repealed on March 30, 2017, after McCrory's reelection loss in 2016.

McCrory lost his bid for a second term as North Carolina's governor in the 2016 gubernatorial election, conceding to Democrat Roy Cooper a month after the election but continuing to make voter fraud allegations. Court injunctions blocked his attempts to limit Cooper's power during a lame-duck special session. In 2022, McCrory ran for the U.S. Senate and lost the Republican primary to U.S. Representative Ted Budd.

McCrory was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Audrey Mona (née Herzberg) and Rollin John McCrory. His family moved to North Carolina when he was a child. He was raised Presbyterian and his family attended First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro. He graduated in 1974 from Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, North Carolina. He attended Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he received degrees in political science and education in 1978. McCrory was active in the Student Government Association and was part of a conservative backlash to the growing "hippie" culture at Catawba in the mid-1970s. He married Ann Sturgis in 1988.

In 2001, McCrory gave the graduation keynote address at his alma mater, Catawba College. The college awarded him an honorary doctorate of legal letters. He has served as a member of Catawba College's board of trustees.

In January 2008, after 28 years with Duke Energy, he retired from the company to run full-time for governor.

In January 2009, McCrory was named a partner with Charlotte-based McCrory & Company, a sales consulting firm.

In January 2010, he was named a Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives for Charlotte-based law firm Moore & Van Allen PLLC. He is a 2014 Young Leader Alumni member of the American Swiss Foundation.

McCrory began his political career in Charlotte in 1989 when he was elected an At-Large City Councilman. He was re-elected in 1991 and 1993; McCrory served as Mayor Pro Tem from 1993 to 1995.

In 1995, he was elected mayor of the city of Charlotte, succeeding Richard Vinroot, who ran unsuccessfully for the 1996 Republican gubernatorial nomination. At the age of 39, McCrory was the city's youngest mayor. McCrory gained a reputation as a popular, affable mayor. In the 2007 mayoral election, he defeated seven-term Democratic state Rep. Beverly Earle, 61 to 39 percent.

McCrory announced in late 2008, shortly after his gubernatorial campaign, that he would not seek an eighth term. McCrory is the city of Charlotte's longest-serving mayor.

McCrory helped develop Charlotte's 25-year transportation and land-use plan. Working closely with U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, McCrory made efforts to secure $200 million in federal funds for the city's new Lynx Light Rail system. The plan helped expand bus service in Charlotte as well as bringing light rail to the city. The light-rail line has been cited as McCrory's biggest achievement as mayor.

During McCrory's tenure (1995–2009), Charlotte's population grew by 20%, and the population of Uptown Charlotte increased to over 13,000 people. McCrory led the effort to recruit such companies as TIAA-CREF, General Dynamics Armament, The Westin Hotel, and Johnson & Wales University. The Charlotte Arena and the U.S. Whitewater Center were opened during his term. In 2005, Money magazine listed Charlotte in its Top 3 Best Places to Live and Reader's Digest named it one of the 20 Cleanest Cities in America.

McCrory has also been involved in many national organizations, having served as president of the Republican Mayors and Local Officials (RMLO) organization; chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) Committee for Housing and Community Development; six-term Chair of the USCM Environmental Committee; and founder and inaugural chairman of the North Carolina Metropolitan Coalition. McCrory was also the only elected official to serve on the national board of the Afterschool Alliance and was a featured Mayor in Harvard University's Faith-based Executive Session.

McCrory reportedly commissioned a poll to test the waters for a run for governor in November 2007, shortly after his seventh mayoral re-election victory, but well after other Republican gubernatorial candidates had begun campaigning. A 2007 Rasmussen Reports poll had McCrory leading both major Democratic candidates, Bev Perdue and Richard H. Moore, by three points each.

The Raleigh News & Observer reported on January 9, 2008, that McCrory had filed the necessary paperwork with the State Board of Elections to run for governor. He announced his candidacy in his hometown of Jamestown on January 15, 2008.

In the primary election on May 6, 2008, McCrory defeated four opponents, including State Senator Fred Smith, to win the Republican nomination for governor. During the primary, McCrory was criticized for lacking conservative credentials and for the high taxes and large debt accrued in Charlotte while he was mayor. McCrory countered with negative ads against his foremost opponent, Sen. Fred Smith, inaccurately accusing Smith of running up state debt while in the legislature.

In the general election, Democratic lieutenant governor Bev Perdue raised $5.6 million and ran attack ads against McCrory, criticizing him on various issues.

McCrory later referred to the ads as "shameless, inaccurate, and negative". Perdue and McCrory remained closely competitive, with the two often polling in a statistical tie in what was the tightest race for governor in the nation. The McCrory campaign spent $3.4 million, and an independent expenditure funded by the Republican Governor's association assisted McCrory with a further $6.2 million in spending for attack ads on Perdue. Perdue ran slightly behind her opponent in polls released the week before the election. Pundits speculated that Perdue was hurt by belonging to the same party as the increasingly unpopular incumbent Governor Mike Easley, and by McCrory's efforts to tag her as part of corruption in Raleigh. Consultants also mentioned Perdue's "difficulty of being the candidate of continuity in a change election."

Following his defeat in the 2008 gubernatorial election, McCrory announced that he would not seek a record eighth term as Charlotte mayor in 2009. Having retired from Duke Energy after 29 years of service in early 2008 to run for governor, McCrory decided to return to the private sector. He went on to work for his brother's consulting firm, and also joined the law firm of Moore Van Allen. McCrory also began to pave the way for a possible 2012 gubernatorial campaign by remaining active in the North Carolina Republican Party. He spoke at numerous GOP county and district conventions and dinners, as well as the 2009, 2010 and 2011 state GOP conventions.

After being a centerpiece of the 2010 Republican takeover of the North Carolina Legislature, McCrory worked closely with Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis, both of whom hail from the Charlotte area and are close friends of McCrory's.

Governor Bev Perdue declined to seek re-election in 2012. McCrory then announced his candidacy for governor on January 31, 2012. On May 8, 2012, he won the Republican primary with 83.40% of the vote. McCrory went on to defeat Democratic Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton in the general election, 55% to 43%. It is the largest margin of victory for a Republican in an open-seat race for governor since Reconstruction.

When asked in a debate what further abortion restrictions he would sign into law if elected, he answered, "None." McCrory publicized his positions on the economy and education in two white papers. One was called "The North Carolina Comeback" and focused on economic recovery. In it he stated that he would strive to reduce the unemployment rate to below South Carolina's and also to restructure the North Carolina's tax codes.

The other paper, "A Passion for Education," advocated several areas for reform: more classroom technology, such as virtual courses and hand-held technology; teacher merit-pay systems; and expansion of charter schools. McCrory also suggested stopping social promotion of some students and creating a new method of grading schools.

The Raleigh News & Observer reported that McCrory would declare adding $2.2 million in the second quarter, totaling $4.4 million available for campaign spending, with 98 percent of the donors from North Carolina. For 2012, the North Carolina Board of Elections required second-quarter campaign-finance reports to be filed by July 11. In the first-quarter campaign-finance reports, McCrory showed that his campaign added at least $1 million more to its bottom line than Dalton's campaign. In the first quarter McCrory reported outraising Dalton by more than $1 million. He also reported raising nearly $3 million more than Dalton for the election cycle to date. McCrory reported having $3.1 million cash on hand, and Dalton reported $670,356.14.

McCrory took office on January 5, 2013, the first Republican Governor of the state since James G. Martin left office on January 9, 1993. His swearing-in gave the Republicans complete control of state government for the first time since Reconstruction.

McCrory's election marked the first time that Republicans controlled both houses of the General Assembly as well as the governorship since 1870. From taking office, McCrory had signed into law a number of bills promoting conservative governance.

He signed legislation which made North Carolina the 8th state to cut unemployment benefits since the 2007 start of the Great Recession. In addition to cutting maximum weekly unemployment benefits by 35%, the state reduced the maximum number of weeks of assistance to between 12 and 20, down from 26. The cut prevented 170,000 North Carolinians from benefiting from federal emergency extended benefits, which require a minimum of 26 weeks of state support, but also allowed the state's unemployment fund, which had become bankrupt over the course of the recession, to become solvent three years sooner. The move was criticized by some for passing up federal support and weakening the government safety net when the state had the nation's 5th-highest unemployment.

In March 2013, citing concerns about the sustainability of the program, McCrory signed a bill that opted the state out of the expanded Medicaid program of the Affordable Care Act of 2009, which would have provided healthcare coverage to 500,000 North Carolinians. He also proposed managing Medicaid accounts, by enrolling patients in managed-care programs run by private companies.

In May 2013, McCrory signed a North Carolina adaptation of Caylee's Law after receiving unanimous consent in the General Assembly. Caylee's Law had been enacted by several state legislatures in response to the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial, which garnered national attention. The law makes a parent/caregiver who deliberately fails to report their child missing guilty of a Class I Felony, among other felonious acts such as concealing the death of a child under the new law.