State Rep. Graig Meyer posed that question to Governor Roy Cooper – and posted a video of the Governor’s response. Below is a lightly edited transcript.

Meyer began by asking, “What are the values that make you a Democrat?”

Cooper:

“Well, I got my values growing up in eastern North Carolina. I’m a person of faith. My mom was a public-school teacher. My dad was a small-town lawyer and also put me to work on a farm which he had very early in my life. So my values are working hard and making sure everyone has an opportunity.

“The way you get an opportunity for everyone is investment in public education. I’m talking early childhood all the way through our great community colleges and universities. I think investment in education is where our core values are as Democrats, because that provides the opportunities to people. We have to have the positive message that we as Democrats are going to be the party of opportunity, the party of education.

“My mission is a North Carolina where people are better educated, where they’re healthier, where they have more money in their pockets and they have the opportunities to live a more abundant and purposeful life. That’s my mission statement.

“I think now is our time.”

Meyer: “What should grassroots Democrats out there do?”

Governor Cooper:

“The hardest thing for people out there is talking to that single mom with two kids. She’s got two jobs. She’s trying to make sure that they’ve got a great future. And she sees candidates on television that are sniping at each other and it’s all negative. What we have to fight is that mom saying, ‘What real difference does it make for my life? How is my life going to change?’ And it’s a good question. It’s one that frustrates a lot of people out there.

“I think we’ve got to go to that mom and say, it matters now more than ever before, because your kids’ affordable education is going to be helped by electing the Democratic representative in that district because that’s what they care about. The Republican leader in that district often is trying to cut back on that education opportunity and give tax giveaways to the wealthy.

“Also, I know you want your kids to be healthy. That Democrat is working to try to expand health coverage to people in your district where you live, when the Republican leader refuses to even take 90 percent federal dollars to help make your insurance more affordable and help cover your kids and your family.

“Talk to them about the issues that matter to them. Probably never in our lifetime has there been such a stark difference here. It really does matter to their lives. We’ve got unemployment down and the stock matter up, but middle-class wages, median wages for people – they don’t feel like they’ve taken part in the recovery that we’ve had.

“We’ve got to get help for middle-class North Carolinians, and these corporate tax breaks and the individual income tax cuts that benefit mostly the wealthy, that the Republican leadership has scheduled to go into place in 2019, are going to hurt the middle class because they don’t get much more money in their pockets, if any, when you even everything out. They need opportunity and education, and we need everybody working hard in these legislative elections, because this is where we can gain the most ground next year.

Meyer: “2018 will be the year of what?”

Governor Cooper:

“The Year of the Workforce. What we’ve got to do is to make sure that we’ve got the workforce ready for the jobs of tomorrow. And those new jobs are coming fast. The CEOs tell me that the well-trained skilled workforce is what they need above corporate tax cuts, above essentially anything else. So we need to make it the Year of the Workforce.

“It will also be the year of the Democratic comeback in the General Assembly. Right, Graig?”