Top lawmakers: No asks from Apple on social justice legislation

Apple executives didn't draw any lines in the sand over social justice legislation as they talked with General Assembly leaders about opening a new North Carolina campus, the top two Republican lawmakers in the state said Monday.

"Never came up," Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said during a press conference announcing the company's plans.

“Quite the contrary, Apple seemed to be very pleased with the business environment, the regulatory environment, the investment in education, the tax environment, where we are in North Carolina right now," Moore, R-Cleveland, said. "So, if they had any issues, they didn’t raise them.”

"It had nothing to do with Apple," Berger said Monday.

At the same press conference, though, Gov. Roy Cooper said repeatedly that Apple made it clear the company values "diversity and inclusion." He said company CEO Tim Cook told him Saturday that the repeal of North Carolina's House Bill 2 – the 2016 law that limited local anti-discrimination ordinances and dealt with what sort of public restrooms transgender people could use – was "important in their decision making."

So, Cooper said, was the sunset of House Bill 142, a partial repeal of House Bill 2 that, until the end of last year, included a moratorium blocking cities from protecting LGBTQ rights with their own non-discrimination ordinances.

An Apple spokesperson didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment on these issues Monday afternoon.

Asked Monday why the company pulled the trigger now, but not then, Cooper said there's "not a particular reason that I know of."

"People surmise that maybe it was because of diversity and inclusion issues and HB 2 hangover," Cooper said, during the joint press conference with Berger, Moore and other state leaders.

"I don’t know for sure," the governor said. "But I had a conversation with Tim Cook on Saturday. He feels good about our diversity, inclusion and anti-discrimination landscape.”

Cooper also said state recruiters never stopped talking to Apple after the 2018 deal cooled. That included, top Cooper adviser Ken Eudy said after Monday's press conference, “a very spicy conversation” after Apple announced plans to expand in Austin.

“But it apparently was not spicy enough to burn the bridge,” Eudy said.

Cooper said Monday that the state was disappointed in Apple's decision that fall, "but Apple had purchased property here and continued to tell us that North Carolina was on the radar for something else."

The Republican leaders focused at times Monday on the state's business climate, something the legislature's GOP majority reworked over a decade of tax and policy changes that, among other things, significantly lowered corporate tax rates in the state. Berger said the state's recruiting victory here is "a testament to the success" of Republican fiscal policies, as well as education reforms.

“I think we owe it to the people of North Carolina to work together," Cooper said at Monday's press conference. "You know, we had a tough election in 2020. They tried to get rid of me, I tried to get rid of them, and we ended up the same way we were. And I think we looked at each other and said, ‘This is what the people of North Carolina voted for, we’ve got to work together to get positive outcomes for our state.'"