Where do Josh Stein and Mark Robinson stand on abortion, climate change and other issues?

The North Carolina governor’s race is among the most high-profile in the country, but many voters may still be unclear on the candidates’ record and proposals if they win in November.

There are less than three months until Election Day, which means candidates, journalists and voters are preparing themselves for the final sprint of what has felt like an endless marathon. But this is also the time in general elections when many voters who care about the issues but lead busy lives are just starting to pay attention.

Robinson, a Republican, has gotten copious news coverage over his violent rhetoric, and Stein, the Democratic attorney general, is well known in many circles in the state. But many voters may still be unclear on their record and proposals if they win in November.

So here is a fast comparison of the candidates’ stated positions across several key issues.

Abortion

Mark Robinson

• Has said he would push for a 6-week abortion ban in North Carolina with designs on a complete ban soon after, without exceptions.
• “Let’s say I was the governor and had a willing legislature, we could pass a bill that says you can’t have an abortion in North Carolina for any reason.” [Link]
• Has criticized women who get abortions and demonized abortion care providers.
• “Abortion is murder. People who do that are murdering a human being because that human being is inconveniencing them.”
• Has dismissed exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
• “Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers. It is about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” [Link]
• Spoke at an event sponsored by a group that equates birth control to abortion and has declined on several occasions to say whether he would support legal protections for IVF patients. 
• Behind in recent polls, Robinson, who most of his career has vowed there can be “no compromise” on abortion, now suggests he is content with the state’s 12-week abortion ban.

Josh Stein

• As attorney general, Stein declined to defend the state’s abortion ban in several lawsuits.
• Vowed to protect access to abortion medication in the state.
• “No woman should ever have to worry about whether she can get the medication she needs. I will continue to do everything in my power to stand up for women’s reproductive freedoms.”
• After the Alabama Supreme Court decision that made IVF illegal in that state, Stein called on North Carolina lawmakers to clarify that fertility treatments would always be legal here. They declined.
• Has repeatedly vowed to “fight like hell” against further abortion restrictions, though if Republicans maintain their supermajority after the election they will likely be able to override his veto. 
• “These decisions about having children are the most personal decisions that exist, and … 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.” [Link]

Climate Change

Robinson

• Calls climate change “junk science.”
• “These people that are at the college telling your young people that … climate change is gonna kill us all … I’m gonna say it right now, they are liars. Liars.” [link]
• “If we are going to have success in energy and industry in this state and in this country, what we’re going to have to do is protect ourself against the globalist, climate change cabal.” [Link]
• During his campaign for lieutenant governor, he said he would “[keep] the climate change cabal out of this state and if they are in this state, keeping them in chains.”

Stein

• Announced several initiatives within the office of attorney general to boost the state’s climate resilience, including state grants in 2023 to help underserved communities recover from flooding. 
• Intervened in several cases to ensure homeowner associations can’t discriminate against homeowners using or seeking solar power; to defend federal initiatives to promote solar power and electric vehicles.
• Pushed against plans by Duke Energy that fell short of state carbon and emissions goals.
• Has said he would continue Gov. Roy Cooper’s drive to make the state carbon neutral by 2050. 

Education

Robinson

• Supports draining more money from public schools to pay for the extension of the private school voucher program so that wealthy families can get discounts on their private school tuitions.
• In his 2022 memoir, he wrote that by increasing funding for private and charter schools, he hoped “we might see a mass exodus from public schools entirely … and traditional public schools might be a thing of the past.”
• North Carolina ranks last in the nation in public school funding effort, a measure of how much a state could spend on education versus how much it does. Robinson says that public schools still get too much money.
• “It has already been proven that school systems get better results on less money … our education budget is fine right where it is. We don’t need more dollars, we need to redirect dollars. We need to redirect dollars from bureaucracy.”
• Has said that if it were up to him, public schools would not teach science or history until the 6th grade.
• Has frequently accused North Carolina public school teachers of “indoctrinating” children with a liberal ideology and violating the rights of Christian parents to raise their children as they see fit.
• Has supported efforts to ban books about LGBTQ students or systemic racism, and backed legislation that limits what teachers can teach and forces them to out gay students to their parents.

Stein

• Criticized the legislature’s expansion of the voucher program, calling for that money to be invested in public schools instead.
• “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. And when you look at the areas that are going to take it on the chin the hardest with this voucher scheme that they’re putting forward – it’s our rural counties. They’re the ones that don’t have many private schools. They’re the ones who are going to lose out on state money and they don’t have a tax base to make it up the way that a Wake County or a Durham County has.” [Link]
• Supports the longstanding Leandro Plan, a court-ordered independent consultant’s plan requiring the legislature to fully fund public schools equally, investing millions in underfunded rural school systems. The legislature ignored the order. 
• “North Carolina’s children have a constitutional right to a sound, basic public education. Our General Assembly is failing them.” [Link]
• Says on his campaign website that the legislature should increase teacher pay and invest in schools across the state to end the severe staffing shortages that leave children with limited bus drivers, nurses and counselors.
• “We must support our educators and give teachers meaningful pay raises to recruit and keep the best and brightest teachers for our kids. We must also invest in other critical school staff, including counselors, nurses, social workers, and bus drivers.” [Link]

Economy

Robinson

• Criticizes most public spending as socialism, especially subsidies. But the nonprofit run by his wife received some $7 million in federal funding since 2017, including $830,000 in salaries for Robinson, who used to work there too, and his family.
• Said he would not have supported Medicaid expansion in the state, a bipartisan deal last year that has so far helped 600,000 low income families get health insurance.
• Released an economic plan that cut taxes across the board, the biggest which would go to wealthy individuals. 
• Says he supports investment in broadband and other infrastructure but railed against the Biden-Harris administration’s bipartisan infrastructure law that invested billions in the state to repair bridges, bring high-speed internet to rural communities and clean the state’s drinking water. Robinson called the bill a “boondoggle.”

Stein

• Has pledged to improve efforts to build affordable housing across the state.
• Has called for the legislature to raise the minimum wage.
• Backed Medicare expansion.
• Proposed a “Working Families Tax Cut,” for individuals making $50,000 or less. 
• Says he wants the state’s thriving economy to “work better for everyone.”

Voting Rights

Robinson

• Claims Joe Biden lost the 2020 election.
• Wants to make voting harder by eliminating most early voting, the most popular form of voting in the state. 

Stein

• Filed an amicus brief along with 18 other state attorneys general to defend parts of the federal Voting Rights Act