Winter weather limits North Carolina governor’s inauguration to TV speech

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — With an outdoor public inauguration ceremony canceled due to winter weather, new North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein instead planned to kick off his term in office with a televised address indoors.

Stein was to deliver a speech on Saturday in Raleigh, instead of the originally scheduled swearing-in ceremony outside the old Capitol building for the Democratic governor and other statewide executive branch officials within what is called the Council of State.

Forecasts for snow, sleet and freezing rain Friday and parts of Saturday prompted the state inaugural committee to call off public festivities, including a block party that could be rescheduled. Official inauguration parties Friday and Saturday night also were postponed.

Stein and several Council of State members — the lieutenant governor, attorney general and state treasurer among them — had already taken their official oaths in private or in small ceremonies early in the new year. Stein, who succeeded term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, gave a brief speech at his Jan. 1 swearing- in. Saturday’s address, being streamed by North Carolina public television, was expected to go longer.

Stein, the attorney general for the past eight years who defeated then-Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in November, already has signaled the Hurricane Helene recovery as a top early-term priority. He has visited western North Carolina twice since Jan. 1 and issued a half-dozen executive orders on the state government’s response to the historic flooding.

Republican state legislative leaders sounded hopeful on the General Assembly’s opening day this week that they could work with Stein to approve more hurricane recovery money early in 2025.

On more partisan issues, Stein is in a better position compared to Cooper since 2023 to permanently block legislation that he vetoes. Republicans are now one House seat short of holding a veto-proof majority in the legislature, meaning Stein’s vetoes can hold if House Democrats remain united.

When Cooper became governor in 2017, approaching snow and sleet forced cancellations of a public swearing-in ceremony and inaugural parade. Four years later, after Cooper’s reelection, COVID-19 restrictions derailed gatherings. A made-for-television inauguration ceremony for Cooper and other Council members was held outside the Executive Mansion.