After fighting virus, storms and Republicans, departing North Carolina Gov. Cooper focuses on wins

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is leaving his job after eight years in which the southern Democrat picked his moments against a Republican-dominated legislature, winning big on Medicaid expansion and clean energy while falling short in fights over private-school vouchers and abortion rights.

Cooper, who steered the state through the coronavirus pandemic, Hurricanes Helene and Florence and an early flashpoint in the culture wars over access to public restrooms, was barred from seeking a third consecutive term. He is wrapping up 24 consecutive years in statewide office — the first 16 as attorney general.

In a December interview with The Associated Press at the executive mansion, Cooper reflected on his gubernatorial terms with an emphasis on the positive — an easier undertaking compared with many Democrats around the country in the aftermath of this year's election.

"To be able to wake up every morning and get to lead the state that you love has been humbling, challenging and fulfilling. I have really valued every day,” said Cooper, who will be succeeded by state Attorney General Josh Stein, a fellow Democrat, in early January.

Faced with veto-proof majorities for almost half of his time as governor, Cooper was unable to stop many GOP initiatives, including deep income tax cuts, taxpayer-funded vouchers to help public school students attend private schools and new restrictions on abortion.

But Cooper, one of several Democratic governors seen as potential contenders for federal office, managed last year to persuade GOP legislative leaders to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act — something he had sought since getting sworn in as governor in 2017. Now 600,000 low-income adults are enrolled in the program a year ahead of expectations.

“This is a generational investment in people’s health,” Cooper said during a farewell address last week in Nash County, where he grew up and launched his first gubernatorial campaign in 2015. Another bipartisan agreement was reached in 2021 on a milestone energy bill that ordered sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

Cooper takes credit for conditions that led to big corporate expansions that he says have contributed to hundreds of thousands of new jobs being created during the past eight years, including those in the clean energy sector. But he also gives his rare praise to Republican lawmakers for all working together on offering economic incentives that have lured companies such as Apple, Toyota and Boom Supersonic to build in the state.

Still, Republicans contend Cooper receives too much acclaim for the state’s broad economic success and has pushed for reckless state spending at every turn. Half of his record 100-plus vetoes were overridden.

“There has not been a governor who has had less of his agenda enacted and North Carolina has succeeded in spite of his leadership failures," state GOP spokesperson Matt Mercer said.

Regardless, Cooper’s perceived accomplishments in a swing state raised his national profile during this year’s presidential campaign, making him as a potential running mate for Kamala Harris until he said it "just wasn’t the right time" for him and for North Carolina. Now Cooper, 67, will have to decide whether trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, in 2026 is in the cards after holding what he calls the “best job I have ever had.”

While North Carolina Democrats have won eight of past nine gubernatorial elections, they haven’t won a U.S. Senate race since 2008.

“If you’re going to run for public office again, you must have your heart and soul in it, you must have the fire in the belly,” Cooper told the AP.

With that in mind, he said he planned to take a couple of months to clear his head before deciding what’s next: “I’m going to think about how I can best contribute to the things that I care about.”

It’s little wonder why many North Carolina Democrats want Cooper to remain on the political stage. He has never lost a race for state office, from the legislature in the mid-1980s and including a 10,000-vote win over then-GOP Gov. Pat McCrory in 2016.

“What he’s done really from my perspective is he’s kept the progressive flame alive in North Carolina in a difficult time,” said Gary Pearce, a longtime Democratic political consultant who worked with four-term Gov. Jim Hunt. “I’m not sure anybody else could have done it as well as he did.”

Cooper took on Republicans even before he was sworn in.

As governor-elect he began a series of lawsuits challenging legislation approved weeks before he took office that shifted executive branch powers to the legislature. The legal results were mixed, and even now litigation over his appointment powers remains in court. This month, Republican lawmakers enacted more changes that would weaken Stein's gubernatorial authority. Two lawsuits related to that law have been filed so far.

In his first three months in office, Cooper worked with lawmakers to partially repeal the 2016 “bathroom bill,” which had required transgender people to use public bathrooms aligned with the gender on their birth certificate. The law had lost the state business, including canceled sporting events and job expansions, and “North Carolina’s reputation was in tatters,” Cooper said.

Eight years later, “we built a North Carolina that is healthier, better educated, with more money in people’s pockets, and we stand ready to welcome prosperity with open arms for generations to come,” Cooper said.

Republicans cite several shortcomings in Cooper's administration. They include spending overruns at the state Department of Transportation; continued delays to rebuild or renovate homes for eastern North Carolina residents after Hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018; and executive orders that helped extend restrictions on businesses and school instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s been painful dealing with the governor fiscally,” Republican state Sen. Warren Daniel said. “I just think he’s not very good at managing government.”

Cooper has defended his actions, particularly his pandemic leadership, saying North Carolina came out better than many other states.

Even in policy defeats, Cooper secured the admiration of supporters. The Democratic governor used lots of political capital in 2023 trying unsuccessfully to block a law that changed the state’s ban on most abortions from after 20 weeks of pregnancy to 12 weeks. Republicans overrode his veto.

“There’s simply no governor who’s ever fought as hard or as publicly as Gov. Cooper has to protect access to abortion,” said Paige Johnson with Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.

Plenty of North Carolinians see that differently. Cooper’s opposition to the abortion bill reflects an administration that “has been consistently hostile to policies that serve the best interests of North Carolina families,” said Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the NC Values Coalition.

Cooper said he has confidence that Stein, who succeeded him as attorney general, will “continue a lot of the progress that we have made.” Cooper hired Stein two decades ago, while attorney general, to be his consumer protection chief.

Otherwise, Cooper knows that he’ll miss “having the opportunity every single day to do something to make a real difference.”

“That’s what you can do in this job,” he added. "And whatever I decide to do, that’s going to be hard to replicate."

FILE - North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper unveils a report during a press conference in Raleigh, N.C., Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary D. Robertson, File)

FILE - North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, center left, watches a robotics team at Nashville Elementary School in Nashville, N.C., direct its vehicle in the school library, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary D. Robertson, File)

FILE - Roy Cooper is sworn in as North Carolina governor shortly after midnight at the historic state Capitol Building in Raleigh, N.C., early Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown, Pool, File)

FILE - North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper arrives to speak at a campaign event in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond, File)

RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.

Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.

"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.

Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.

Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.

As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.

What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.

The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.

One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.

Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.

“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.

The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.

Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.

Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.

“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)