RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Democratic attorney general and the Republican lieutenant governor won North Carolina’s primaries for governor on Tuesday, setting the stage for what will be an expensive and high-stakes November contest in a state that the two parties see as a pivotal battleground.
Josh Stein and Mark Robinson, each of whom turned back multiple party rivals, will present stark contrasts for voters in the ninth-largest state’s fall elections. In separate election-night victory speeches, each candidate laid out policy and individual differences and said the other would harm the state’s economy if he reached the governor’s mansion.
Stein is a longtime member of North Carolina’s political scene, a lawyer with the endorsement of term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and a long history of consumer advocacy before and during his time as AG.
“We must be clear-eyed about the stakes of this election,” Stein told supporters in Raleigh. “We’re at a crossroads and the choice before us: two competing visions for North Carolina.”
Robinson, meanwhile, is a former factory worker who splashed into conservative circles after a 2018 viral speech to his hometown city council catapulted him to lieutenant governor in 2020 and the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
“The differences could not be more clear,” Robinson said at a Greensboro victory party. “I’m sure the people of North Carolina will make the right choice.”
Both Robinson and Stein are prolific fundraisers, amassing a combined $30 million through their campaign committees since early 2021. Democratic and Republican groups already talking about the seat in November are likely to spend millions more.
Stein, who would be the state’s first Jewish governor if elected, and Robinson — North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor and the state’s first Black governor if successful in November — won their primaries convincingly….
Read the full article here
