McCrory was first elected governor in 2012. He was sworn in as the 74th governor of North Carolina on January 5, 2013. He ran for re-election in 2016, but was defeated by Roy Cooper (D) in the general election on November 8, 2016.

HB2 and transgender bathroom access laws

On March 23, 2016, the North Carolina State Legislature passed the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, also commonly known as House Bill 2 (HB2). The legislation mandated that "[l]ocal boards of education shall require every multiple occupancy bathroom or changing facility that is designated for student use to be designated for and used only by students based on their biological sex," and provoked significant backlash from the national LGBT community.

The legislation was in response to a local ordinance passed in Charlotte, North Carolina that would have prevented businesses from discriminating against LGBT customers. It also included a provision that would have allowed transgender people to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. Before the local LGBT ordinance could go into effect on April 1, 2016, legislators in the General Assembly of North Carolina called a one-day special session on March 23 to address the issue, at which time HB2 passed in both chambers of the legislature. The bill overruled the local ordinance and prevented local governments from setting up their own anti-discrimination rules, including laws against LGBT employment discrimination. McCrory signed the bill into law on March 23.

"I empathize with these people who have some very unique needs. But at the same time it doesn't mean everyone else should have to compromise a well-established etiquette of men in men's restrooms and showers and locker rooms," said McCrory upon signing the bill. He dismissed objections to the law as "political theater" orchestrated by "left wing activist groups." He also contested assertions that the law would hurt North Carolina's economy, saying that he had not heard of a single business that was moving out of North Carolina in protest. Following his statement, several large companies, such as PayPal and Deutsche Bank, canceled expansion plans in the state in protest, while others took their business elsewhere—the National Basketball Association announced on July 21 that its All-Star Game would no longer be held in Charlotte beginning in 2017, an estimated $100 million revenue loss.

On May 4, 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to McCrory and the state’s public universities stating that HB2 violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII “prohibits an employer from discriminating against an individual on the basis of sex and from otherwise resisting the full enjoyment of Title VII rights.” The letter also said that the bill violates Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which bars discrimination in education based on sex. The state government, a Republican trifecta, and the universities were given a deadline of May 9 to “remedy these violations.” If they were not to comply, and if this finding were upheld by the courts, federal funding to state universities could be affected. On Thursday North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore said they did not plan on meeting the deadline, which they considered bullying by the Obama administration.

Budget dispute resolution

On September 18, 2015, McCrory signed a $21.7 billion budget, almost three months after the previous year’s budget expired on July 1. Before McCrory signed the budget bill, the third temporary government spending provision was set to expire late the same night. The new budget will fund the government through June 2017. The budget dispute was a result of disagreements over Medicaid reform, economic development and taxes. The budget passed the state Senate by a vote of 33 to 16, and the state House voted 81 to 33 to pass the budget.

After signing the budget bill, McCrory made the following statement:

The budget includes a decrease in personal income tax in 2016 from 5.75 to 5.49 percent, an increase in funding for public schools, a raise in minimum teacher salaries from $30,800 to $35,000, and a $750 bonus to all state employees and teachers at the end of the year. The budget also expanded sales tax to include labor for repairs and installations, and set aside $225 million over the following two years for Medicaid reform.

Veto of same-sex marriage exemption

The North Carolina State Legislature approved a bill in May 2015 exempting county magistrates and registers of deeds from issuing marriage licenses if the marriages conflict with their religious views. On May 28, McCrory issued a veto of the legislation because of his concern for adherence to state law. The veto message stated:

Veto overridden by state legislature

North Carolina law requires a three-fifths vote from each legislative chamber to override a governor's veto. The North Carolina Senate voted 32-16 on February 25 to support the exemption; on June 1, the chamber successfully overrode McCrory's veto, once again voting 32-16 in favor of the measure. After the Senate override, the bill returned to the North Carolina House of Representatives for the decisive vote on the veto. House members barely surpassed the 60 percent threshold in their vote with 10 members absent from the May 28 vote. On June 11, with 10 members still absent, the House passed the opt-out legislation by a vote of 69-41; it needed 66 votes to complete the override.

Response to the 2014 illegal immigration surge

On July 22, 2014, McCrory and the Republican governors of Alabama, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin sent a letter to President Obama expressing their concerns about the handling of the reported increase in illegal border crossings. The surge focused on unaccompanied and undocumented immigrant children crossing into Texas. The governors noted that a failure to return the children “will send a message that will encourage a much larger movement towards our southern border,” endangering more children.

Common Core

On December 19, 2015, the Academic Standards Review Commission published its final recommendations to modify the state's Common Core standards for math and English in public schools. The commission was created in July 2014. Its 11 members were appointed by the legislature, the governor and the state board of education.

McCrory supported the Common Core State Standards Initiative adopted by the state in 2010. He said that earlier efforts to repeal the Common Core education standards by the Republican legislature were ill-advised. Instead, he said he wanted to work on correcting issues, stating that "you don’t just throw out the whole thing if you have some minor issues you need to fix. We are trying to get some of the language out of the current bills in which we toss the whole thing out with no replacement.”

He made the remarks after the North Carolina Senate pushed ahead with legislation calling for a commission to recommend changes to the standards. The House approved a different version. Legislators reconciled their bills to create a commission to review standards, leaving the original Common Core standards intact until publication of the commission's recommendations. McCrory approved the compromise legislation, arguing that the commission's mandate was to review standards instead of making decisions usually reserved for the North Carolina Board of Education.

Cabinet salaries

Republican state legislators changed state law to allow the governor to set cabinet member salaries. As of January 2013, McCrory's eight-member cabinet together made more than $1 million—an increase of $78,000 from the previous year.

McCrory increased salaries for four cabinet secretaries—Health and Human Services, Public Safety, Transportation, and Corrections—from $121,807 to $135,000. The other four—Energy and Natural Resources, Revenue, Administration, and Cultural Resources—went from $121,807 to $128,000.

Explaining the raises, McCrory said, "I'm trying to make it at least where they can afford to live while running multi-billion dollar departments."

Tax reform

On July 23, 2013, McCrory signed into law a tax reform bill that made the personal income tax rate uniform and reduced corporate income taxes. The bill lowered the personal tax rate to 5.8 percent in 2014 and 5.75 percent in 2015. The corporate income tax dropped from 6.9 percent in 2013 to 6 percent in 2014 and 5 percent in 2015. Legislators also included a corporate tax rate of 4 percent in 2016 and 3 percent in 2017, contingent on higher revenues from an improved state economy.

During the bill signing, McCrory made the following statement:

Stance on Syrian refugee resettlement

Main article: U.S. governors and their responses to Syrian refugees

After the attacks in Paris, France, on November 13, 2015, many U.S. governors declared their support or opposition to Syrian refugee resettlement in their states. McCrory expressed conditional opposition to the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state of North Carolina. He said:

On March 23, 2016, the North Carolina State Legislature passed the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, also commonly known as House Bill 2 (HB2). The legislation mandated that "[l]ocal boards of education shall require every multiple occupancy bathroom or changing facility that is designated for student use to be designated for and used only by students based on their biological sex," and provoked significant backlash from the national LGBT community.

The legislation was in response to a local ordinance passed in Charlotte, North Carolina that would have prevented businesses from discriminating against LGBT customers. It also included a provision that would have allowed transgender people to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. Before the local LGBT ordinance could go into effect on April 1, 2016, legislators in the General Assembly of North Carolina called a one-day special session on March 23 to address the issue, at which time HB2 passed in both chambers of the legislature. The bill overruled the local ordinance and prevented local governments from setting up their own anti-discrimination rules, including laws against LGBT employment discrimination. McCrory signed the bill into law on March 23.

"I empathize with these people who have some very unique needs. But at the same time it doesn't mean everyone else should have to compromise a well-established etiquette of men in men's restrooms and showers and locker rooms," said McCrory upon signing the bill. He dismissed objections to the law as "political theater" orchestrated by "left wing activist groups." He also contested assertions that the law would hurt North Carolina's economy, saying that he had not heard of a single business that was moving out of North Carolina in protest. Following his statement, several large companies, such as PayPal and Deutsche Bank, canceled expansion plans in the state in protest, while others took their business elsewhere—the National Basketball Association announced on July 21 that its All-Star Game would no longer be held in Charlotte beginning in 2017, an estimated $100 million revenue loss.

On May 4, 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to McCrory and the state’s public universities stating that HB2 violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII “prohibits an employer from discriminating against an individual on the basis of sex and from otherwise resisting the full enjoyment of Title VII rights.” The letter also said that the bill violates Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which bars discrimination in education based on sex. The state government, a Republican trifecta, and the universities were given a deadline of May 9 to “remedy these violations.” If they were not to comply, and if this finding were upheld by the courts, federal funding to state universities could be affected. On Thursday North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore said they did not plan on meeting the deadline, which they considered bullying by the Obama administration.

On September 18, 2015, McCrory signed a $21.7 billion budget, almost three months after the previous year’s budget expired on July 1. Before McCrory signed the budget bill, the third temporary government spending provision was set to expire late the same night. The new budget will fund the government through June 2017. The budget dispute was a result of disagreements over Medicaid reform, economic development and taxes. The budget passed the state Senate by a vote of 33 to 16, and the state House voted 81 to 33 to pass the budget.

After signing the budget bill, McCrory made the following statement:

The budget includes a decrease in personal income tax in 2016 from 5.75 to 5.49 percent, an increase in funding for public schools, a raise in minimum teacher salaries from $30,800 to $35,000, and a $750 bonus to all state employees and teachers at the end of the year. The budget also expanded sales tax to include labor for repairs and installations, and set aside $225 million over the following two years for Medicaid reform.

The North Carolina State Legislature approved a bill in May 2015 exempting county magistrates and registers of deeds from issuing marriage licenses if the marriages conflict with their religious views. On May 28, McCrory issued a veto of the legislation because of his concern for adherence to state law. The veto message stated:

Veto overridden by state legislature

North Carolina law requires a three-fifths vote from each legislative chamber to override a governor's veto. The North Carolina Senate voted 32-16 on February 25 to support the exemption; on June 1, the chamber successfully overrode McCrory's veto, once again voting 32-16 in favor of the measure. After the Senate override, the bill returned to the North Carolina House of Representatives for the decisive vote on the veto. House members barely surpassed the 60 percent threshold in their vote with 10 members absent from the May 28 vote. On June 11, with 10 members still absent, the House passed the opt-out legislation by a vote of 69-41; it needed 66 votes to complete the override.

On July 22, 2014, McCrory and the Republican governors of Alabama, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin sent a letter to President Obama expressing their concerns about the handling of the reported increase in illegal border crossings. The surge focused on unaccompanied and undocumented immigrant children crossing into Texas. The governors noted that a failure to return the children “will send a message that will encourage a much larger movement towards our southern border,” endangering more children.

On December 19, 2015, the Academic Standards Review Commission published its final recommendations to modify the state's Common Core standards for math and English in public schools. The commission was created in July 2014. Its 11 members were appointed by the legislature, the governor and the state board of education.

McCrory supported the Common Core State Standards Initiative adopted by the state in 2010. He said that earlier efforts to repeal the Common Core education standards by the Republican legislature were ill-advised. Instead, he said he wanted to work on correcting issues, stating that "you don’t just throw out the whole thing if you have some minor issues you need to fix. We are trying to get some of the language out of the current bills in which we toss the whole thing out with no replacement.”

He made the remarks after the North Carolina Senate pushed ahead with legislation calling for a commission to recommend changes to the standards. The House approved a different version. Legislators reconciled their bills to create a commission to review standards, leaving the original Common Core standards intact until publication of the commission's recommendations. McCrory approved the compromise legislation, arguing that the commission's mandate was to review standards instead of making decisions usually reserved for the North Carolina Board of Education.

Republican state legislators changed state law to allow the governor to set cabinet member salaries. As of January 2013, McCrory's eight-member cabinet together made more than $1 million—an increase of $78,000 from the previous year.

McCrory increased salaries for four cabinet secretaries—Health and Human Services, Public Safety, Transportation, and Corrections—from $121,807 to $135,000. The other four—Energy and Natural Resources, Revenue, Administration, and Cultural Resources—went from $121,807 to $128,000.

Explaining the raises, McCrory said, "I'm trying to make it at least where they can afford to live while running multi-billion dollar departments."

On July 23, 2013, McCrory signed into law a tax reform bill that made the personal income tax rate uniform and reduced corporate income taxes. The bill lowered the personal tax rate to 5.8 percent in 2014 and 5.75 percent in 2015. The corporate income tax dropped from 6.9 percent in 2013 to 6 percent in 2014 and 5 percent in 2015. Legislators also included a corporate tax rate of 4 percent in 2016 and 3 percent in 2017, contingent on higher revenues from an improved state economy.

During the bill signing, McCrory made the following statement: