Stein casts NC gubernatorial race as referendum on rights
Years of economic and social progress are on the line in North Carolina’s gubernatorial race. That’s the message Attorney General Josh Stein has for Democrats, who were scheduled to meet Saturday in Jamestown for the 2024 state Democratic Party convention.
Stein, the Democratic nominee for governor, was scheduled to speak briefly at the hybrid convention — at Ragsdale High School and online — where multiple candidates were scheduled to talk in part about the stakes of the November election.
Stein faces Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, in a race that some polls suggest is neck-and-neck.
In remarks prepared ahead of the convention, the state’s top prosecutor laid out a high-level vision for how he’d govern the Tar Heel state.
“We can be a state with a robust economy with opportunity for all, not a state that drives people away,” Stein said in the prepared remarks, which his campaign provided to WRAL.
He continued: North Carolina can be “a state where we invest in public education, not one that slashes funding from our public schools. A state where we stand up for our fundamental rights like voting rights and women’s rights, not one that sends us back to the 1960s.”
Robinson, Stein said, “wants to turn back the clock.”
Michael Lonergan, a spokesman for Robinson’s campaign, described Stein’s reference to the 1960s as a “racist smear equating electing the first Black governor of North Carolina to the old Jim Crow South.” Robinson is the state's first Black lieutenant governor and would be the state's first Black governor if elected.
“These outrageous lies show why the voters will elect Mark Robinson governor in November to partner with President [Donald] Trump and get our state and country back on track,” Lonergan said in a statement. Trump, the Republican former president who is seeking reelection in November, endorsed Robinson in March.
Stein's remarks come a week after the North Carolina Republican Party convention, where Robinson vowed to broadly reshape North Carolina agencies in a more conservative direction if elected.
Stein is among many North Carolina Democrats — and some Republicans — who have said Robinson’s past comments about women and the LGBTQ community could make it harder to recruit businesses and workers to the state — and could repel moderate voters.
Robinson has said “we are called to be led by men,” adding that, in the Bible, “when it was time to face down Goliath, [God] sent David. Not Davida, David.” Robinson has also said “God formed” him to fight LGBTQ issues, adding that it “makes me sick every time I see it — a church that flies that Rainbow flag, which is a direct spit in the face of God almighty.”
Stein has also placed abortion rights at the forefront of his campaign. He wants to restore the legal protections provided by Roe v. Wade, the recently overturned 1973 Supreme Court decision that allowed for abortion to be legal to the point of fetal viability, meaning when an infant can survive outside the womb. Physicians say that usually happens between the 22nd and 24th week of pregnancy.
Robinson’s campaign says he supports tightening North Carolina’s abortion ban from the 12th week of pregnancy to the sixth week of pregnancy, while continuing to allow for exceptions.
North Carolina has been considered a battleground state for decades. While Joe Biden lost North Carolina to Trump in the 2020 presidential general election, Stein and Gov. Roy Cooper won reelection that year.
Democrats are, at the very least, hoping to improve upon their performance in the 2022 elections. That year, Democratic candidates lost every statewide race. Shortly thereafter, Republicans gained veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
“Together,” Stein said, “we will break the supermajority in the General Assembly, elect more good people to the Council of State and more judges … defend our governorship and defeat Mark Robinson, and return [President] Joe Biden and [Vice President] Kamala Harris to the White House.”
Matt Mercer, a spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party said Democrats "have only themselves to blame for consistently losing races across in North Carolina."
"By embracing the radical-left policies of Joe Biden’s administration, this year will be no different," Mercer said in a statement. "We look forward to highlighting the failures of Democrats, who have no forward-looking vision, and only attack and demonize Republicans fighting to lift up North Carolina families."
WRAL State Government Editor Jack Hagel contributed to this article.
