Art Pope

Early life and education

Pope was born May 5, 1956 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to John W. and Joyce Wilkins Pope. He spent his early childhood in the town of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. He moved with his family to the capital city of Raleigh, North Carolina in the early 1960s. Pope graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978 with a B.A. with honors in political science, and went on to earn his J.D. from the Duke University School of Law in 1981.

Business and professional career

Pope has served as chairman, president and CEO of Variety Wholesalers since 2006. Variety owns and operates 370 stores under the names Roses, Roses Express, Maxway, and Super 10, in sixteen states, with 8,500 employees. Sales for Variety Wholesalers, Inc., a privately held company, are estimated to be at least $700 million and up to $1 billion. The company headquarters is located in Henderson, North Carolina, with a distribution center in Henderson. In 2016 Variety Wholesalers opened a second distribution center in Newnan, Georgia, to support expansion in the southeastern, midwestern and south central United States. Pope first joined Variety Wholesalers, a family business, in 1986. Variety Wholesalers originated in 1949 as a small group of retail stores owned by the Pope family and has expanded by purchasing a number of other retail chains to become one of the largest in the US.

Before entering business, Pope was engaged in a general law practice as an associate attorney with the firm of Skvarla, Boles, Wyrick and From in Raleigh, from 1982 through 1984. In 1984, Pope took a leave of absence from the firm to work as the director of organization for the North Carolina gubernatorial campaign of Jim Martin. Pope served as special counsel to Governor Jim Martin in 1985.

Philanthropy

Pope is chairman and president of the John William Pope Foundation, which he founded with his father, John W. Pope, in 1986. The Pope Foundation has nearly $150 million in assets. It has made over $89 million in grants since 1986, including over $9 million in grants made during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010. The foundation has four areas of activity; humanitarian, public policy, education, and the arts.

Eighteen percent of the grants went to support higher education, including Campbell University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. According to the Washington Post, "Art Pope is one of the most generous donors to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, having lavished millions on his alma mater." His gift to Campbell University was the largest in the history of the Law School.

Ten percent of the Pope Foundation's grants support community philanthropy, including the Habitat for Humanity in Wake County and Food Bank of Eastern & Central North Carolina. In 2012, for the foundation's 25th anniversary, it raised $300,000 at a dinner for Step Up Ministry, a Raleigh chairty that serves 600 homeless and poor people annually to move to stability, housing, and employment. In December 2012, the Pope Foundation announced $810,500 in grants to community charities, schools, churches, and the arts. To counter the effects of the federal government shutdown in October 2013, the Pope Foundation gave $185,000 in grants to "13 food bank-type groups" in central, eastern, and western North Carolina., including three charities in Vance County. In July, 2015 Pope announced financial support for re-building the community gymnasium in Elizabethtown, which he described as a "backbone" of the community.

The Foundation's support for the arts includes grants to the North Carolina Symphony, Carolina Ballet, North Carolina Theater and North Carolina Opera.

Half of the Pope Foundation's grants have gone to support public policy and think tanks in North Carolina, with the largest single recipient being the John Locke Foundation. The Pope Foundation has donated through the years more than $28.7 million to think tanks, including $17 million to the John Locke Foundation, for which Art Pope was the founding chairman. Seventeen percent has supported national conservative and libertarian public policy think tanks, including The Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute.

In 2005, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked the John William Pope Foundation for a $4.8 million grant to enhance its curriculum in Western civilization. In 2006, after wrangling between the university administration and some faculty and students who opposed the proposal, the Pope Foundation declined to fund the proposal. Instead, the Pope Foundation donated $100,000 a year for a visiting scholars program and student fellowships for the study of Western civilization, as well as $2 million for an endowment for salary enhancements for assistant football coaches. In 2011, the Pope Foundation gave the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $3 million for its Student-Athlete Academic Support Center. In 2014 the Pope Foundation donated $1.3 million to endow a professorship and grant program at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Public service

Pope co-founded the Libertarian Party of North Carolina as a college student in 1976. He has been active with the Republican Party since the late 1970s, serving in a variety of roles ranging from precinct chairman to chairman of the North Carolina GOP State Convention. Pope has also served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention on three occasions. Pope was appointed to serve on the North Carolina State Goals and Policy Board from 1985-1989. He also served on the North Carolina Capital Planning Commission.

Pope was first elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1988 to represent House District 61. He served four complete or partial terms in office, winning elections in 1988 and 1990, being appointed to fill a vacancy in 1999, and winning another election in 2000. He was elected Republican Joint Caucus Leader during the 1991–1992 session. Pope was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the state's most prestigious award for public service, in 1992 at age 36.

Pope vacated his House seat to run for the office of Lieutenant Governor in 1992. After winning a three-way Republican primary in May 1992, Pope lost the general election to Democrat Dennis Wicker.

In June 2011, Pope was appointed to the board of directors for Golden LEAF (Long-term Economic Advancement Foundation), a nonprofit grant-making organization whose mission is to spur economic development in tobacco-dependent areas of North Carolina. Pope had previously criticized some Golden LEAF funding decisions.

Pope was among several business leaders appointed in September 2012 to serve on a UNC system advisory group tasked with helping to shape the future of the state's public universities. Pope was also a member of the Electoral College in 2012, casting one of North Carolina's electoral votes for Mitt Romney.

In November 2012, it was announced that Pope would serve as a co-chair on North Carolina Governor-Elect Pat McCrory's transition team, and in December Pope was announced as the state's chief budget director in the McCrory administration. In October, 2016 Governor McCrory appointed Art Pope, along with former Democratic Governor Beverly Perdue, to serve on a bipartisan committee to evaluate and recommend relief and recovery measures from Hurricane Matthew.

Funding and activism for conservative causes

According to the News and Observer, Pope "has invested millions in a network of foundations and think tanks, and advocacy groups, both in North Carolina and nationally, that are designed to further conservative and free market ideas."

In 2005, Pope was a founding member of the NC Coalition for Lobbying & Government Reform. He joined former Democratic state Senator Wib Gulley from Durham, North Carolina, in calling for reform of the state's lobbying laws.

Pope co-founded Real Jobs NC, a 527 organization that ran ads against 20 state Democratic legislators in the North Carolina 2010 general elections. Real Jobs NC was funded in 2010 primarily by the Republican State Leadership Committee, though Pope provided it with an initial $200,000 donation.

Civitas Action Inc, a 501(c)(4) non-profit organized by the John W. Pope Civitas Institute think tank, also sent out mailings against Democratic candidates in the North Carolina 2010 general elections, and is funded primarily by Variety Stores, which is owned by Pope.

Pope also played an active role in the 2010 redistricting of North Carolina's electoral map as a pro bono legal adviser during the process. The redistricting effort assisted in shifting the state's U.S. House delegation from 7-6 Democratic to 9-4 in favor of Republicans. Pope has been a long time supporter of legislation to establish an independent nonpartisan redistricting commission. He has advocated doing away with the public financing of judicial elections in North Carolina. As an alternative to the election of judges, Pope stated he supported the appointment of judges by the governor with confirmation by the state legislature.

Through personal campaign donations and corporate donations to independent expenditure efforts, Pope supported Republican candidates in the 2010 elections for the North Carolina General Assembly in 2010. Of the $30 million spent on North Carolina legislative races during the 2010 election, it was reported that Art Pope's company donated approximately $425,000 as independent expenditures that favored Republicans, and groups tied to Pope spent $2.1 million to influence the campaign.

After his selection as Governor Pat McCrory's budget director, Pope resigned his positions as a member of the board of directors of Americans for Prosperity and as a board member of Civitas Institute and Civitas Action in North Carolina.