Europe execs playing close attention to NC elections, Cooper says after business recruitment trip

European leaders are closely following the U.S. elections this fall — and not just for president, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday, days after returning from a business recruitment trip to Germany, France and Switzerland.

Cooper said that during his trip people frequently asked him about the presidential race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump: “With President Trump’s opposition to NATO, particularly at a time with the aggression of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in Ukraine, there’s a real concern among Europeans,” Cooper said.

But he also said business leaders were keenly aware of even more local politics — that even though Cooper was there recruiting them to move to North Carolina, he only has six months left as governor.

The governor’s office is in charge of the state Department of Commerce and its economic development efforts.

Running to replace Cooper are Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican, and Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat.

Cooper strongly opposes Robinson and is backing his fellow Democrat, Stein, to replace him as governor. Speaking with reporters Tuesday after the monthly Council of State meeting of all the state’s top executive branch officials, Cooper said he passed that message of support along to his international counterparts.

“They like North Carolina’s predictability,” he said. “They like North Carolina’s middle-of-the-road approach to politics. They like the fact that we’ve worked together on economic development. I told them that I felt really certain that was going to continue. I believe that Josh Stein will be elected as governor — that he will continue a lot of the forward-thinking progress that we had made in the state.”

As for Robinson, Cooper added: “He should not be governor.”

Robinson and Stein sit on the Council of State, where Cooper made his comments Tuesday after the meeting. Robinson didn’t attend the meeting, in person or remotely. His campaign later slammed Cooper’s comments, also calling Stein “a far-left liberal” and not the middle-of-the-road politician Cooper said business leaders want.

“Stein as governor would be an unmitigated disaster for our state,” Robinson campaign spokesman Mike Lonergan said. “Mark Robinson will partner with President Trump to keep up the momentum of fiscal responsibility and other pro-growth conservative policies of lawmakers that have helped make North Carolina the best state in the country to do business.”

The governor’s role in business recruiting

Cooper has placed an emphasis on international business recruitment, specifically in the clean energy, aerospace and biotechnology industries. Focusing on specific industries helps develop supply chains and specialty workers, which in turn drives more job creation.

In particular, Cooper has focused on clean energy — not just for its emerging economic potential, he has previously told WRAL, but also his concerns over climate change.

Cooper added on Tuesday that, whoever the voters elect as the next governor in November, that person needs to not retreat from efforts to expand North Carolina’s presence in the international community.

Cooper has previously credited former Gov. Pat McCrory, the Republican he unseated in 2016, for getting talks started with Toyota — efforts that were unsuccessful under McCrory, but which have since come to fruition in the form of the massive electric vehicle battery plant Toyota is building outside of Greensboro, which is expected to eventually employ more than 5,000 local workers.

Cooper pointed not just to his recent trip to Europe but also a trip he took last year to Japan, which resulted in a further expansion of that Toyota factory — and later led to a rare visit to Raleigh by the Japanese prime minister, which coincided with the announcement of a Japanese biotech firm adding hundreds of jobs in Holly Springs.

“We saw those face-to-face meetings making a real difference in Japan,” Cooper said. “I think that they can make a real difference for Western Europe as well — regardless of who the governor is. I think it’s important that we show these companies that we really do want their business, and the governor, whoever it is, comes and tells them that.”