Gov. Pat McCrory

Pat McCrory was sworn in as North Carolina's 74th governor on Jan. 5, 2013.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1956, McCrory moved with his family to Guilford County in the 1960s. He is a graduate of Ragsdale High School in Jamestown and earned a teaching degree at Cawtaba College in Salisbury.

After graduating from college, McCrory went to work for Duke Energy Corp. and worked his way through the management ranks. In 1989, he won election to the Charlotte City Council and in 1995 became the city's youngest mayor.

His best-known accomplishment as mayor is pushing forward with a light rail system and winning support for a sales tax to support the system. In 2007, he helped turn back a referendum that would have ended the transportation tax.

McCrory, a Republican, served seven terms as mayor before running for governor in 2008. He lost that election to Democratic Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue.

At the close of 2008, McCrory left office as mayor and was no longer working for Duke Energy. He then worked for both his brother's consulting business and the Moore & Van Allen law firm as a business consultant. He also continued traveling the state with an eye on the 2012 election.

In 2012, McCrory took more than 80 percent of the vote in the May Republican gubernatorial primary. He then faced Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and Libertarian Barbara Howe in the general election. McCrory took 55 percent of the vote, marking the first time a Republican won election as the state's chief executive since Jim Martin earned a second term in 1988.

Until moving to Raleigh, McCrory lived in Charlotte with his wife, Ann, and dog Mo.