Josh Stein’s goal for North Carolina? ‘Make this a great state for everyone.’

Stein sat on his front porch with Cardinal & Pine to lay out his priorities as he runs for governor of a state with challenges as real as its charms. 

In his bid to move from North Carolina’s attorney general to its governor, Josh Stein has traveled the state with a message that many here already know.

“North Carolina is awesome,” Stein said from his front porch last month in an interview with Cardinal & Pine, a sentiment he often repeats on the campaign trail. 

From its people to its terrain, Stein said, North Carolina is worthy of its reputation as one of the best places to visit and best places to live. 

“It is a place where you feel warm and welcome,” Stein said, and “[its] beauty is unparalleled.”

The state’s economy and tourism are booming, it’s got world class universities, and is a hub of technology and science.

But it is also true, Stein said, that the opportunities provided by those thriving centers of commerce, arts, and education are not accessible across every county, town, and home. 

“We have so much to be proud of, and I love being from this place,” he said, but “we have to make this a great state for everyone.”

That, he said, is what he hopes to change if he becomes governor.

Stein sat in a rocking chair as he spoke, trying to keep cool on one of the hottest days of the year. A weak breeze barely ruffled the American flag hanging off his porch, as city utility vans worked down the block and neighbors walked their dogs past his house. 

He spoke of what he has learned about his home state as he governed and campaigned across it.

“Folks in North Carolina are nice,” Stein said. “When you’re at the gas station, at the gas pump, the person across from you will talk to you; when you walk down the street, you don’t know the person, they will say ‘hi’ to you.”

But he also laid out what a Stein administration’s priorities would be, including the intent to bridge the distance between neighbors and strangers in a state with challenges as real as its charms.

‘We have to keep investing in our people.’

North Carolina seems to lead the nation in contradictions.

It ranks first or second for business, and worst for workers. Its universities are among the best in the world, while it ranks last in public school funding. Its medical institutions are exemplary, while huge portions of North Carolina’s rural population are unable to access life-saving medical attention without driving long distances. In both 2016 and 2020, it voted for both Republican Donald Trump and Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.

It’s possible to sustain the good and change the bad, Stein said.

“What I want is for the economy to work for more people, and for that economic benefit to be more broadly distributed across the state.”

The divide is especially severe, he said, in the state’s economy and education system.

“I meet people who want to live in their hometown. They want to be where their family is. They want to be where their friends are, but they just don’t think that the economic opportunity is there,” he said.

A Stein administration, he said, would put the emphasis on lowering costs, especially for housing and health care. 

He has proposed a Working Families Tax cut that his campaign says would save more than $500 per year for individuals and up to $1,486 for families with three or more children. 

But his economic plan works from the bottom up, he said, and it starts with raising the minimum wage, which North Carolina has not increased in 16 years.

“It’s still $7.25, which is an embarrassment,” Stein said.

“We can do better by our working people.”

He added: “So much of what has driven this economic resurgence in this state is the talent of our workforce. But we have to keep investing in our people so that it’s constantly replenishing and that we’re no longer that we’re not perceived as yesterday’s news.”

‘I give them an F’

North Carolina ranks last in the nation in public school funding effort, a measure of how much a state spends compared to how much it could spend. It’s 38th in overall teacher pay.

“The Republican legislature is failing public education,” Stein said. “They are eager to grade public schools in this state, but I give them an F for what they are doing to strengthen public education.”

The General Assembly’s budget last year included some new money for starting teachers, but the raises, as we reported last year, don’t keep up with the costs of the school supplies teachers have to buy themselves.

“We can fix that problem here in North Carolina,” Stein said.

“We have to invest in our kids. We have to invest in public education.”

But how?

“We have to work with the legislature to make the case that public education is central to the long term success of our kids, which means that it’s central to the long term success of the state,” he said.

The governor, however, can’t raise the minimum wage or increase public school funding on his own.

In North Carolina, that buck stops at the General Assembly, where Republicans have a super majority and could be a substantial obstacle to many of Stein’s plans if he wins. 

‘We’ve been able to get things done together’

Stein is not too worried about working with Republicans in the legislature, he said. Because he’s done it before. 

As Attorney General, he led or took part in bipartisan efforts to address the opioid crisis, eliminate the country’s biggest backlog of untested rape kids, and better protect children from sexual abuse, he said.

“There have been a number of issues where we’ve been able to get things done together,” Stein said. 

He also pointed to Gov. Roy Cooper’s success in reaching bipartisan deals to invest in Electric Vehicle (EV) plants in the state and, after a decade of Republican resistance, to expand Medicaid.

That expansion, Stein said, would help close some of the other equity gaps as well. 

“[Some] 500,000 people have health insurance today who did not in December of last year,” he said. 

“That means when they get sick and they go to the doctor, they go to the hospital, their bill can get paid instead of going into collections. That’s an incredibly positive thing.”

The governor and legislators can revitalize the state’s healthcare deserts, Stein said, by increasing incentives for medical providers to move there. 

“We need to be able to have more ways for people in the rural parts of the state to get the health care that they need in order to to be healthy, well, and thrive.”

There are plenty of similar issues, he said, that transcend politics. 

“These are issues where the interests, the beneficiaries of this, they’re not Republicans, they’re not Democrats, they’re not unaffiliated – they’re North Carolinians, they are everyone,” Stein said.

“I like to fix things,” he added.

“I like things to be better. I like for our neighborhoods to be safer. I like for our economy to be fair. I like for our environment to be cleaner. I like for our schools to be stronger. And these are things that we can deliver for the people of North Carolina. But we have to come together.”

‘Fight like hell’

Reproductive rights are perhaps the biggest issue for many voters in 2024.

The state’s 12-week abortion ban, and Robinson’s comments that he eventually wants a full ban here, have put the issue front and center, and Stein has made protecting abortion rights, as well as access to birth control and IVF, a centerpiece of his campaign.

Robinson has recently sought to obscure his long anti-abortion record, but he has previously called women who have abortions “murderers,” and frequently said he thinks abortion shouldn’t be legal “for any reason,” dismissing calls for exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

“It’s just unacceptable,” Stein said. “I will veto any further restrictions on reproductive freedom.”

“The woman who’s giving birth is the one who decides whether to have a child or not. That decision should not be made by politicians.”

Republican leadership has given mixed signals over the last year about whether they would pursue further abortion restrictions in 2025, assuming they keep their supermajority. Until just recently, however, Robinson’s signals have not been mixed. 

“If I had all the power right now, let’s say I was the governor and had a willing legislature,” Robinson said in 2023, “we could pass a bill saying you can’t have an abortion in North Carolina for any reason.”

If the legislature pushes for new restrictions under his own watch, Stein said, he would “fight like hell.”

‘It breaks your heart’

North Carolina has experienced severe drought this summer and the increased weather effects from human-caused climate change are a threat to all sorts of institutions and communities in the state, from flooding that ravages the coasts to fires that scorch the mountains. Voters, especially young voters, frequently cite climate change as one of their most pressing concerns.

And most North Carolinians acknowledge that the effects of climate change are a problem, even if red and blue counties may argue over the cause. 

“I just was driving in eastern North Carolina, and I saw all kinds of cornfields just brown on the stalk,” Stein said. 

“You think about all the work, the resources the farmer poured into their field only to see a yield of zero. It breaks your heart.”

The heat, drought, flooding, and storms exact heavy tolls on lifestyle and livelihoods. 

“We’ve taken it on the chin much harder than a lot of other states in recent years,” Stein said.

Stein’s Republican opponent, Mark Robinson, says climate change is a hoax and has released no plans to address the extreme weather associated with it.

But what would be the pillars of a Josh Stein climate change policy?

“We’ve got to build resilience,” he said, and “get serious about reducing carbon.”

Cooper vowed to make North Carolina carbon neutral by 2050, an effort Stein has said he would continue. 

Stein has also said he would continue Cooper’s push to make North Carolina a major player in the EV industry.

The state has lured several companies that manufacture the lithium batteries that power EVs, and Stein said he would continue to push for investments in the industry, which will help lower emissions and create high paying jobs here.

“These are things that we’re making progress on,” he said.

‘It is equally necessary that we break the supermajority’

Republicans have drawn electoral maps that make it difficult for Democrats to win in many districts, so while Stein says he would be able to work with the Republican-controlled legislature on many issues, if they maintain their supermajority in November, they would be able to override any of his vetoes.

Stein, however, rejected this reporter’s suggestion that Republicans would likely hold their power after the election. 

“There was a key assumption in your question that I don’t accept at this point, which is that the Republicans will expand their majority,” he said. “Every seat in the General Assembly, all 170, is up for election this November,” he added. 

“It is … essential that if [voters] care about reproductive freedom, if [they] care about climate, if [they] care about public education, it’s necessary that [they] elect me as governor. But it is equally necessary that we break the supermajority.”

‘So we need to get excited’

North Carolinians are as good at voting, Stein said, as they are at hospitality.

While many states are so red or blue that there’s little chance of variation, North Carolina’s elections are always so close that the cliche holds especially true here — every vote matters.

“[Voters] have power … to shape who wins and who loses,” Stein said.

“That’s incredible. So we need to get excited about the power we have,” he added. 

“And use it.”