Governor-electJosh Stein applauds supporters during an election night watch party on Tuesday, after being declared the winner. (AP Photo/Grant Halverson)
North Carolinians voted in large numbers for Trump, but rejected some of the most far-right state candidates in modern history.
North Carolina elected every Democrat running for the high-profile council of state races, including Josh Stein as governor, Jeff Jackson as attorney general, and Mo Green as public school superintendent, beating back the most far-right slate in modern history.
It also voted for Donald Trump, and in doing so, once again cemented itself as the most impossible-to-define political state in the country.
Outside the national spotlight, Democrats had as good a night as could be expected.
North Carolina will not have Mark Robinson as governor, a man who demonized the LGBTQ community, said “some folks need killing,” and claimed that abortion was about “killing a child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”
Stein beat Robinson by nearly a million votes.
The state also won’t have Michele Morrow leading public schools, a woman who said Trump should “set aside” the Constitution and claimed that Barack Obama should be executed live on pay per view.
North Carolinians won’t see Dan Bishop, who tried to help illegally overturn the 2020 election results, lead the state’s department of justice as attorney general.
And Democrats also broke the Republican supermajority in the NC House by a single seat, giving Stein veto leverage against further abortion bans and other legislation.
But this same electorate voted substantially for Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris, giving him a bigger margin of victory in 2024 (more than 3 percentage points) than he had over Joe Biden in the state in 2020 (1.3 percentage points).
Here’s a quick look at the status of some of the major races in the state.
Trump beats Harris
Despite the huge burst of enthusiasm Harris brought to the ticket in North Carolina, she lost by more than 191,000 votes. She got just 280 fewer votes than Biden won in 2020, as of Wednesday morning, but Trump racked up over 100,000 more votes here than in 2020, suggesting that the bulk of those new voter registrations Democrats were excited about voted for Trump, not Harris.
Governor: Stein routs Robinson
Fox News called the race 6 minutes after polls closed. Robinson never had a chance.
Stein got more than 3 million votes, some 200,000 more than Trump won, and beat Robinson by nearly 15 percentage points, amounting to one of the most lopsided governor races in state history.
Stein was a strong and polished candidate, and may have been the slight favorite no matter his opponent, but Robinson’s record made Stein’s job easy.
Robinson’s campaign started with excitement among Republicans, but the final months of the campaign were devoted to coverage of Robinson’s several scandals, including a report that in the years before he entered public office, he posted graphic, racist, and pornographic comments on an adult website messaging board.
More than 600,000 North Carolinians voted for Trump but said no thank you to Robinson.
In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Stein vowed to work for all North Carolinians.
“We must put aside our differences and work together,” Stein said, and “reject the politics of division, fear and hate that keep us from finding common ground.”
He added: “Thank you for believing in the promise of North Carolina, ” he said.
Attorney General: Jackson beats Greg Bishop
Jackson beat his current Congressional colleague by almost 150,000 votes, stopping Bishop from bringing his anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ views into the attorney general’s office.
Jackson, who only announced his run for attorney general after the Republican-controlled General Assembly gerrymandered him out of his Congressional district, also said on Tuesday night that he would work to represent and protect everyone in the state.
“To every person in this state, whether you voted for me or not, it will be an incredible honor to serve as your next attorney general,” Jackson said.
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Green Beats Morrow
This will be the last time for while we have to remind you that Morrow called for the deaths of several Democrats, said anyone who isn’t a Christian is a follower of Satan, and complained that customers in a Dollar Tree were speaking Spanish.
The race was closer in this one than some of the others but Green, a former superintendent of Guilford County Schools, won by more than 2 percentage points.
“I am humbled and honored to be elected as North Carolina’s Superintendent of Public Instruction,” Green said in a press release Wednesday morning.
“We met the moment, together as champions of public education.”
There was still a lot to do, though, he said.
“The work does not end here. It’s now upon us to put forth and implement our bold vision, direction, and plan for NC public schools. Our children and the future of our state depend on it.”
Democrats break the Republican supermajority in the NC House
In the other big deal of the night for Democrats, they flipped enough seats in the state House to end Republicans’ veto-proof supermajority in the legislature.
Republicans seem to have expanded their majority in the NC Senate, but they will no longer have the votes in the House to override any Stein veto unless a Democrat breaks rank.
That gives a lot more leverage to Stein to block further abortion restrictions or expansions of the state’s private school voucher program.
NC Supreme Court: Still too close to call
Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs trails her Republican opponent Jefferson Griffin by less than 10,000 votes, or .18 percentage points. Overseas and military ballots can be accepted through the 10-day canvassing period, so it could be several days before this race is called.
If Griffin maintains his lead, it will ensure Republican control of the state’s highest court for the next decade.
Other races
- Democratic Congressman Don Davis beat Republican Laurie Buckhout by more than 5,000 votes, keeping alive the chances that Democrats could retake control of the US House.
- Democrat Rachel Hunt defeated Republican Hal Weatherman in the race for lieutenant governor by nearly 2 percentage points.
- Democratic incumbent Elaine Marshall fended off a challenge from Republican Chad Brown and will remain the secretary of state.
- Republicans pretty handily won the races for state auditor, treasurer, and commissioners of labor, agriculture, and insurance.
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