Pope is the owner, chairman and CEO of Variety Wholesalers, a group of 370 retail stores in 16 states.

[4] He founded the American conservative North Carolina think tank the Civitas Institute and co-founded the John Locke Foundation and the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.

[5] Pope's family foundations contributed millions of dollars to conservative causes, both nationally and in his home state.

[3] Before entering business, Pope was 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.

After winning a three-way Republican primary in May 1992, Pope lost the general election to Democrat Dennis Wicker.

[22] 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.

[28][29] In 1975, as a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman, Pope filed a complaint under the code of student conduct against Algenon L. Marbley, President of the Black Student Movement, for shouting down David Duke of the Ku Klux Klan during a campus speech.

[19] 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.

[33] In 2019, Pope spoke on behalf of a bipartisan coalition to support a constitutional amendment, sponsored by both Republican and Democratic legislators, to end gerrymandering in North Carolina.