Josh Stein announces 2024 campaign for North Carolina governor
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein will run for governor in 2024, he announced in a video Wednesday morning.
The news confirms widespread speculation that he’d seek to replace Gov. Roy Cooper, a fellow Democrat, who is term-limited and can’t run again.
His video starts with a story about his father, a civil rights attorney whose law firm was fire-bombed in 1971, during a legal battle over racial segregation in North Carolina public schools.
“Today there’s a different set of bomb throwers, who threaten our freedoms and our future while some politicians spark division, ignite hate and fan the flames of bigotry,” Stein said.
Stein worked as a top deputy in the attorney general’s office under Cooper in the early 2000s, and the two have remained close. He also served several terms as a state senator representing Cary, before succeeding Cooper as attorney general in the 2016 elections.
He is the first major candidate for the governor’s race. His announcement could start a stream of other candidates also announcing their plans to run.
It’s likely that both the Democrats and the Republicans will have competitive primaries for governor in 2024 since the seat will be open, with no incumbent running, for the first time since 2012.
Regardless of who else jumps into the race, it’s likely that Stein will start off with a large financial advantage. His campaign is already one of the biggest in the state, and his announcement Wednesday will likely lead to a new boost in donations.
Even though he wasn’t running for anything in 2022, Stein’s political campaign kept up a large presence, spending over $1.1 million just in the first half of the year on staffing, ads, consulting, fundraising and more.
His campaign also raised $4.3 million in those six months and went into July — the most recent data publicly available — with $3.4 million in the bank.
Stein targets Robinson
Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has publicly considered a run for governor, without making an official announcement. Stein’s campaign is treating him as a likely opponent, however, even using Wednesday’s announcement video to feature clips of Robinson pushing abortion restrictions and calling gay people “filth.”
“Robinson wants to tell you who you can marry, when you’ll be pregnant, and who you should hate,” Stein said. “I’m running for governor because I believe in a very different North Carolina. One rooted in our shared values of freedom, justice and opportunity for everyone.”
Robinson made history in 2020 as the first Black lieutenant governor, The News & Observer reported, and the first Black Republican to win any major political office since Reconstruction.
A political newcomer, Robinson gained viral online fame for a gun-rights speech in his hometown of Greensboro. He’s known for his energetic speaking style and far-right views — like advancing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, about a group of Jewish bankers secretly controlling the world, during his 2020 run for office.
Stein made history himself in 2016 as the first Jewish person to ever win a statewide election in North Carolina, according to the group Jewish Heritage North Carolina.
While Stein entered the second half of 2022 with $3.4 million in his political campaign, Robinson had $2.1 million.
Robinson reported raising $3.5 million in the first half of the year compared to Stein’s $4.3 million, and spending slightly more, to the tune of nearly $1.5 million.
Running for governor requires massive sums of money, due in part to North Carolina’s multiple media markets.
In 2020 when Cooper defeated Republican challenger Dan Forest, Cooper’s campaign spent $41 million and Forest’s campaign spent $11 million. Each of them also benefited from millions of dollars more in outside spending from political parties, PACs and other groups.
Stein’s record as AG
Stein is among the most prominent Democrats in the state and in recent years has attracted national attention for some of his work as attorney general.
His numerous lawsuits against drug companies have brought roughly $1 billion into North Carolina to fight the opioid epidemic. Other consumer protection actions targeting robocalls and the e-cigarette company Juul have also made waves.
As opioid and Juul lawsuits raise NC AG Josh Stein’s profile, GOP moves to restrict him
At the same time, Stein has also faced criticism from Republicans. They say he politicized the attorney general’s office — and they have used their power in the legislature to slash his budget by millions of dollars.
Stein had North Carolina sue the Trump administration multiple times, over policies ranging from immigration to health care and the environment. His office is now representing state elections officials who oppose the “independent state legislature” case that Republican lawmakers recently brought to the U.S. Supreme Court.
He’s also embroiled in a more personal legal battle, over his 2020 campaign for attorney general.
His Republican opponent in that election, Jim O’Neill, accused him of breaking an obscure law from the 1930s that makes it a crime to lie about politicians — by claiming that an ad Stein’s campaign ran against O’Neill was false.
‘Unprecedented repression of free speech’: Cooper slams investigation of Josh Stein
The Wake County District Attorney’s Office investigated Stein and was on the verge of having him formally charged with a crime over that ad, The News & Observer reported last year, when Stein sued to have the law thrown out as an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.
He has so far won that argument in court, but the lawsuit isn’t over yet and could drag on for months or even years.
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