by WorldTribune Staff, December 8, 2016

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory nearly rode Donald Trump’s coattails to the finish line, but a torrent of outside money and the radical Left’s ability to push major sports organizations, businesses, and celebrities to boycott the state over HB2 ultimately brought him down, constitutional groups say.

“McCrory came very close to winning despite being outspent by nearly $8 million,” American Principles Project (APP) president Frank Cannon said. “He was less than 10,000 votes away from withstanding an outright blitzkrieg of hate from corporate America, the sports-entertainment complex, and Hollywood celebrities.”

Meanwhile, Gov.-elect Roy Cooper is taking heat for selecting as his senior adviser a proud backer of San Francisco 49ers’ often-sacked quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Equality NC, who endorsed governor-elect Roy Cooper, said “it’s clear that HB2 cost McCrory his re-election bid.”

“Roy Cooper is a champion of equality and for North Carolina values, and he is the right person to lead our great state moving forward,” said Equality North Carolina Executive Director Chris Sgro.

“Pat McCrory’s reign of discrimination is finally over,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “McCrory’s stubborn and reckless support of HB2 cost him this election, and his defeat sends a powerful warning to lawmakers across the country that targeting LGBTQ people will not be tolerated.”

Constitutional groups say it was the left’s ability to turn HB2 into an economic issue, overshadowing the social aspect, that turned enough voters away from McCrory. The LGBT-rights issue would have lost in North Carolina on its own merits, the APP said.

Columnist Mark Shiver blamed McCrory’s failure to respond to North Carolinians’s concerns about tolls on I-77 in Charlotte for his loss.

Now, Gov.-elect Cooper’s appointment as his senior adviser a public supporter of San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick is raising eyebrows.

The choice of Ken Eudy as senior adviser “is troubling … in a state that is home to nearly 130,000 active-duty military personnel and nearly 100,000 military retirees,” the Civitas Institute wrote on Dec. 7.

Throughout this NFL season, Kaepernick has been kneeling in protest during the playing of the national anthem.

Eudy said earlier this year that he stays in his seat when thousands of fans stand and cheer men and women in the armed services.

“I sit simply because I think it odd that, of all the categories of Americans that we honor, we honor warriors,” Eudy said.

  HB2, How did N.C.’s GOP governor lose despite clear Trump victory?, Ken Eudy, Roy Cooper, WorldTribune.com