Cooper: I’ll seek consensus, but fight bad laws

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The Latest on North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s inaugural address delivered Saturday.

North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is vowing in his inaugural address to find consensus on issues but says he’ll fight laws that attempt to make any state resident “less in the eyes of their fellow citizens.”

In the prepared text of Cooper’s speech delivered by television Saturday, the new governor pressed his case to expand Medicaid coverage and to repeal a law limiting LGBT rights and directing which public bathrooms transgender people can use.

Republican legislative leaders have opposed Medicaid expansion and approved House Bill 2 last March. Cooper this week filed paperwork toward his pursuit to expand Medicaid, and an effort last month to repeal HB 2 fell short amid partisan acrimony.

Cooper already has sued legislative leaders over a law they passed last month reducing his powers over elections, but the former state attorney general says he refuses “to spend the next four years engaging in political brinkmanship.”