Passing the torch

Cooper represents the end of an era while Stein represents the beginning of a new one.

North Carolina starts the New Year with a new governor. Josh Stein, along with other Council of State members, was sworn in yesterday. It feels like the end of one era as Roy Cooper goes back to being just a regular citizen for the first time in more than 30 years while Stein begins a new one.

Cooper is the last of a breed of politicians that led North Carolina for most of the 20th century. He was born and raised in eastern North Carolina at a time when tobacco and textiles ruled the state. He went to the University of North Carolina, got a law degree from there, and went back home to Nash County to practice law with his father. He entered politics early and served in both houses of the legislature before becoming attorney general and governor.

Until now, a lot of the state’s chief executives had similar stories. They knew what it was like to work in fields and tobacco warehouses or textile mills. They could talk to farmers, field hands, and mill workers. They went to public colleges with the sons and daughters of the people who led the state, part of an elite that had one foot in North Carolina’s past and one foot in its future.

Probably half of the people Cooper knew as Democrats growing up are voting Republican today. He came along as the one-party state evolved into two-party system, becoming one of the most competitive states in the country. His roots in rural North Carolina helped him win by narrow margins when Republicans won relatively handily in presidential races. We aren’t likely to see Democratic governors raised in that culture again.

Stein is the governor who represents the emerging North Carolina. He, too, grew up here, but he is a product of the North Carolina that those Democratic leaders built. He’s a reflection of a Democratic Party that put its hopes into building an economy based as much on knowledge and research as crops and manufacturing.

Stein was raised in Chapel Hill as it shifted from a sleepy college town to a bedroom community for the Research Triangle Park. He attended Ivy League schools before coming back to North Carolina to build a career, mostly in public service. He settled in the Triangle and raised his family in Raleigh.

While Stein was not a product of the rural South, he came from a family that worked to right the wrongs of the past and give opportunity to all North Carolinians. His father was one of the leading civil rights lawyers in state and nation, helping to desegregate schools by successfully arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court. His mother is known across the public health community for her work in maternal and child health. Stein grew up with a commitment to both public service and the state of North Carolina.

If Cooper is a reflection of the leaders of North Carolina’s Democratic past, Stein embodies the leaders of the future. He’s a product of people who moved here in the last fifty years or so, instead of a descendant of people who trace their heritage to the time before the Civil War. He grew up and went to school with people of more diverse backgrounds. He brings an understanding of possibilities based on the experience of people and places beyond the boundaries of the state and even the South.

Stein’s successful candidacy proved that the state is ready to move on from the traditions and myths of the Old South. He’s the first Jewish governor of the state, and maybe any Southern state, and the subject of his religion was barely broached. He wasn’t judged by his pedigree, but by his accomplishments. While he was lucky to draw an extremely flawed opponent in Mark Robinson, he also won his third straight victory when Donald Trump carried the state. I’m not sure a candidate with Stein’s profile could have won in North Carolina 20 years ago.

Cooper is passing the torch, not just to another Democrat, but to the next generation of leaders. Stein represents the North Carolina that is emerging, more urban and suburban, less rooted in the state’s long history. His experience is broader than leaders past with a background that includes teaching in an African nation. His experience growing up in North Carolina was likely much different than Cooper’s, yet their values overlap. Both bring a commitment to fairness, equality, and competence, a belief that government can make a difference by offering opportunities and delivering services. They both want to move North Carolina forward and staunchly resist the reactionary push to turn back the clock.

I look forward to Stein’s tenure and hope to see more of Cooper.