WATCH: Under Gov. Roy Cooper, North Carolina is CNBC’s #1 State for Business

Today, CNBC’s 2021 ranking of America’s Top States for Business declared North Carolina the best state for business in the country. This is the third consecutive year of rankings where a Democratic governor led their state to the top spot.

Watch Gov. Roy Cooper on CNBC discussing how his strong, bipartisan leadership has made business boom in North Carolina, and read key excerpts from the interview below:

• On workforce development: “We’ve pulled together to make sure businesses know we have the most talented workforce in the country … they see North Carolina as a place where they can rely on our community colleges, our greatest array of private and public universities in the country, to make sure that they have the workforce that they need.”

• On bipartisan leadership: “High-paying jobs for our people are something we have to agree upon, and this general assembly has trusted my administration and me to go out and negotiate deals.”

• On business incentives: “We’ve had mega sites that have been extraordinarily successful in attracting businesses to our state. And this last budget I signed, there’s more investment to develop more because we’re running out of them because we have so many businesses interested in coming to North Carolina and expanding here.”

• On inclusiveness: “I’ve appointed by far the most diverse cabinet in the history of our state. We are number one in the country for the percentage of women in our tech workforce. We have more four-year HBCUs than any state in the country … I’ve issued executive orders to make sure we are protecting our LGBTQ+ community. I’ve issued an order banning any contracts with organizations that engage in conversion therapy.”

• On protecting abortion: “I will protect women’s reproductive rights. I will not back down. I think that’s important for women across our state and country, but it’s also good for business.”

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