North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory Announces Re-Election Bid

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory announced he will run for re-election in Kernersville Wednesday. It's his first official campaign stop of the season.

McCrory says he chose this stop at the printing plant Salem One because it's a great example of economic success and job growth. It's a major theme of his campaign, along with infrastructure and education. His social media campaign also released a video on Tuesday that talks about why he's running again for governor.

While more work needs to be done, McCrory says his administration has helped create more than 230,000 new private sector jobs since he took office.

 “North Carolina now is in the top twelve in the country for job creation and the state has the eleventh largest decrease in unemployment since we've been in office,” says McCrory.

Garry Terry and his wife, Julie, drove nearly four hours from Bertie County for the Kernersville event. They are former farmers and say they went there because the governor is a friend to the industry.

“We support the governor because he is interested in agriculture and he's interested in growing the economy of North Carolina,” says Terry. “Agriculture is a huge part of our state and it's a $77-billion dollar piece of our economy. Blood sweat and tears go behind raising that food and the governor supports that.”

The former Charlotte mayor is the only Republican candidate to announce his bid for governor so far.

Two Democrats — Attorney General Roy Cooper and Durham lawyer Ken Spaulding — have already announced their candidacies.

*Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news