Gov. Pat McCrory Concedes NC Governor's Race to Democratic Challenger Roy Cooper

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(CHARLESTON, N.C.) — Weeks after Election Day and after requesting a recount, incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory conceded the North Carolina gubernatorial race to his Democratic challenger, Roy Cooper.

“Despite continued questions that should be answered regarding the voting process, I personally believe that the majority of our citizens have spoken and we now should everything we can to support the 75th governor of North Carolina – Roy Cooper,” Gov. McCrory said in a video released Monday by his office.

Today, Governor McCrory released the following video message on the 2016 election results. pic.twitter.com/e65DTFaZ6l

— NC Governor’s Office (@GovOfficeNC) December 5, 2016

In a statement, Cooper thanked the McCrorys for their service and said he looks “forward to working with them and their staff in what I expect will be a smooth transition”

Governor-Elect Roy Cooper released the following statement on Governor Pat McCrory’s concession: pic.twitter.com/2nKjCaYY7w

— Roy Cooper (@RoyCooperNC) December 5, 2016

Cooper won 49 percent of the vote, with McCrory close behind at 48.9 percent of the vote.

The North Carolina gubernatorial race was the last remaining race without a winner called.

On Nov. 22, McCrory’s campaign announced it would join Chuck Stuber, a candidate for state auditor, in filing for a statewide recount, when counties had yet to complete counting ballots. McCrory trailed Cooper then by about 6,500 votes.

“With many outstanding votes yet to be counted for the first time, legal challenges, ballot protests and voter fraud allegations, we must keep open the ability to allow the established recount process to ensure every legal vote is counted properly,” Russell Peck, Pat McCrory’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

Cooper’s campaign manager, Trey Nix, responded to McCrory’s request for a recount, saying in a statement, “We are confident that a recount will do nothing to change the fact that Roy Cooper has won this election.”

McCrory came under fire earlier this year for signing the controversial House Bill 2, otherwise referred to as the “bathroom bill.”

The bill requires all public schools, public college campuses, and government agencies to designate multiple-occupancy bathrooms and changing facilities, such as locker rooms, for use only by people based on their “biological sex” stated on their birth certificates. Transgender people can’t use bathrooms and changing facilities that correspond to their gender identity, unless they get their biological sex on their birth certificate changed.

Cooper, who is now North Carolina’s outgoing attorney general, called House Bill 2 a “national embarrassment” and would not defend it. During the election, Cooper argued that the bill should be repealed.

In an exit poll from the North Carolina primary, 65 percent of North Carolina voters opposed the bathroom law while 29 percent supported it.

Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

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