McCrory "Poll-Tested" His Official Bigotry; Turns Out the Poll Was Flawed

RALEIGH - Newly released emails of former Gov. Pat McCrory show McCrory received public opinion poll results on HB2 the day before he signed the discriminatory law in March of 2016. The Charlotte Observer reports that McCrory’s emailed reaction on March 22, 2016, was “Wow,” when he read poll results on HB2, which the General Assembly passed and McCrory signed the very next day.

The polling McCrory studied before signing the discriminatory law suggested HB2 would be popular with voters. But as the damage of lost jobs, lost revenue, and cancelled sports and cultural events quickly mounted, and as the public learned the law discriminated against people far beyond any restroom, HB2 grew deeply unpopular with voters. So the governor who poll-tested HB2 before signing HB2 started a nonsensical campaign to claim that HB2 (which McCrory signed) was some conspiracy of the left.

“The realization that Pat McCrory poll-tested HB2 before signing HB2 shows that motives behind this discriminatory law were just crass politics to get re-elected, not a real concern for public safety,” said Gerrick Brenner, Executive Director at Progress NC Action. “The rotten self-serving motives behind HB2 are one more reason why the General Assembly must fully repeal HB2 before the NCAA blackballs North Carolina for the next six years.”