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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s latest Democratic governor was sworn in to office on Wednesday, as Josh Stein succeeded Roy Cooper once again in a top elected position for the second time in eight years.
During a small ceremony inside the old Senate chamber of the 1840 Capitol building, Stein took the oath for governor from Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby. Stein’s wife, Anna, family and friends and state officials watched, including Cooper himself.
“Today I stand before you humbled by this responsibility, grateful for this opportunity, and ready to get to work for you, the people of North Carolina,” Stein said during a roughly 25-minute ceremony.
By defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in November by almost 15 percentage points, Stein continued a run of Democratic dominance leading the executive branch in the nation’s ninth-largest state, even as Republicans have recently dominated the General Assembly and the appellate courts. Democrats have won eight of the last nine gubernatorial elections since 1992.
Stein has been the attorney general for the past eight years, following Cooper in the elected law-enforcement post that Cooper himself had held for the 16 years previous.
Related: Outgoing North Carolina governor commutes 15 death row sentences
Cooper was barred by the state constitution from seeking a third consecutive gubernatorial term this past fall. Stein also worked under Cooper in the state Department of Justice as his consumer protection chief in the 2000s.
Cooper, who delivered opening remarks, said to his successor: “Governor, this will be the best job that you have ever had.”
Stein’s powers have been challenged by Republican lawmakers, who last month overrode a Cooper veto of a wide-ranging measure that erodes the governor’s authority to manage elections, fill appellate court vacancies and pick his own Highway Patrol commander. Cooper and Stein sued recently to block the Highway Patrol and state election board changes.
Stein made no direct references to the legal battles Wednesday. But he praised Cooper’s leadership and urged bipartisanship and the rejection of “the politics of division, fear and hate that keep us from finding common ground" to succeed in priorities that he highlighted.
“The time is now to build a safer and stronger North Carolina, where our economy continues to grow and works for more people, where our public schools are excellent and our teachers are well paid, where our neighborhoods are safe and our personal freedoms are protected,” he said.
He also said the state must “act with urgency” to help western North Carolina recover from the historic flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in September, particularly with housing, small businesses and infrastructure. Congress last month approved legislation that will bring at least $9 billion more in storm aid to North Carolina.
Stein, 58, grew up in Charlotte and Chapel Hill, the son of a noted civil rights lawyer. He graduated from Harvard Law School and gained notice as the campaign manager for John Edwards when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998. Stein also served as a Raleigh-area senator before being elected attorney general the first time in 2016.
Stein, who is the state’s first Jewish governor, placed his hand for the oath Wednesday on an 1891 edition of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible provided by a woman whose ancestors settled in North Carolina in the 1850s, according to Stein’s office.
Stein and Cooper then participated in the formal transfer of a historic embossing machine that creates the state seal — a sign of the governor’s authority.
Wednesday’s ceremony of fewer than 100 people was livestreamed. A larger, outdoor inauguration ceremony for Stein and other elected members of the Council of State is set for Jan. 11 outside the old Capitol. Since the state constitution says their terms begin Jan. 1, many council members were taking formal oaths Wednesday.
