RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein was elected governor on Tuesday, defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and maintaining Democratic leadership of the chief executive’s office in a state where Republicans have recently controlled the legislature and appeals courts.
Stein, a Harvard-trained lawyer, former state senator and the state’s chief law enforcement officer since 2017, will succeed fellow Democrat Roy Cooper, who was term-limited from seeking reelection. He will be the state’s first Jewish governor. Robinson's campaign was greatly hampered by a damning report in September that he had posted messages on an online pornography website, including that he was a “black NAZI."
Democrats have held the governor’s mansion for all but four years since 1993, even as the GOP has held legislative majorities since 2011.
As with Cooper’s time in office, a key task for Stein likely will be to use his veto stamp to block what he considers extreme right-leaning policies. Cooper had mixed success on that front during his eight years as governor.
Otherwise, Stein’s campaign platform largely followed Cooper’s policy goals, including those to increase public school funding, promote clean energy and stop further abortion restrictions by Republicans.
Stein’s campaign dramatically outraised and outspent Robinson, who was seeking to become the state’s first Black governor.
For months Stein and his allies used television ads and social media to remind voters of previous inflammatory comments that Robinson had made about abortion, women and LGBTQ+ people that they said made him too extreme to lead a swing state.
“The people of North Carolina resoundingly embraced a vision that’s optimistic, forward-looking and welcoming, a vision that’s about creating opportunity for every North Carolinian," Stein told supporters in his victory speech after Cooper introduced him. "We chose hope over hate, competence over chaos, decency over division. That’s who we are as North Carolinians.”
Robinson’s campaign descended into disarray in September when CNN reported that he made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago. In addition to the “black NAZI” comment, Robinson said he enjoyed transgender pornography and slammed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as “worse than a maggot," according to the report. Robinson denied writing the messages and sued CNN and an individual for defamation in October.
In the days following the report, most of Robinson's top campaign staff quit, many fellow GOP elected officials and candidates — including presidential nominee Donald Trump — distanced themselves from his campaign and outside money supporting him on the airwaves dried up. The result: Stein spent millions on ads in the final weeks, while Robinson spent nothing.
Stein had a clear advantage among women, young and older voters, moderates and urban and suburban voters, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,600 voters in the state. White voters were about evenly divided between Stein and Robinson, while clear majorities of Black voters and Latino voters supported Stein.
Fifteen percent of those who voted for Trump also backed Stein for governor, while just 2% of those who cast ballots for Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris backed Robinson.
Patrick Stemple, 33, a shipping coordinator attending a Trump rally last week in Greensboro, said he voted early for Trump but also chose Stein for governor.
Stemple mentioned both Stein’s ads talking about how he has fought illegal drug trafficking and his dislike for Robinson’s rhetoric. Stemple said the graphic language that CNN reported was used in Robinson’s posts reinforced his decision not to back Robinson.
“Before, I used to like him. But then once I started seeing and hearing about this, and seeing him talking about it on TV, I was like, ‘Too much,’” Stemple said.
The son of a prominent civil rights lawyer, the 58-year-old Stein grew up in Chapel Hill and went to Dartmouth and Harvard Law School. He managed John Edwards’ winning 1998 U.S. Senate campaign and worked in the 2000s as Cooper’s consumer protection chief while Cooper was attorney general.
Stein succeeded Cooper as attorney general, but his 2016 and 2020 general election victories were extremely close: fewer than 25,000 votes both times.
While attorney general, he promoted his efforts to protect citizens from polluters, predatory student loans and high electric bills.
Stein took credit with lawmakers for eliminating the backlog for testing thousands of sexual assault kits in police custody, saying it led to additional DNA matches for unsolved crimes. He also sued TikTok, alleging the company designed the app to be addictive and misrepresented the risks it posed to young users.
Stein angered Republicans with his decision to end the state’s defense of a 2013 voter ID law that was struck down and of some abortion restrictions.
Robinson, who was elected the state's first Black lieutenant governor in 2020 in his first bid for public office, campaigned largely on a platform of boosting rural economies, supporting law enforcement and teachers and substituting basic skills instruction for what he labeled political indoctrination in the public schools.
In a speech Tuesday night, Robinson made indirect references to the commercials run by Stein, saying that during his campaign he didn't spend millions of dollars “demonizing anyone.”
"I’m disappointed for you because I wanted this so bad for you," Robinson told supporters, adding that he was “glad to have run a race that was upright and decent."
Unaffiliated voter Joe O’Neill, 58, of Wingate, said he favored Robinson because “he’s actually more for people like me, the working class.” He called television ads against Robinson a “misrepresentation” and pushed back on the CNN report.
“I absolutely do not believe it,” said O’Neill, who works for a textile equipment manufacturer. “To me, he seemed like a man of his word.”
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This story has been edited to correct a word in Robinson's quote to “run,” not “won.”
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Associated Press writers Makiya Seminera in Raleigh and Hannah Fingerhut in Washington contributed to this report.
Gary D. Robertson, The Associated Press
