2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election
The 2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election took place on November 3, 2020, to elect the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Primary elections were held on March 3, 2020.
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 County results Robinson: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% Holley: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% | |||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in North Carolina |
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In North Carolina, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor are elected separately.
Incumbent Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest was re-elected to a second term in 2016, despite Republican Governor Pat McCrory losing reelection by a narrow margin.[1] Forest was ineligible to run for a third term due to term limits established by the Constitution of North Carolina. He instead unsuccessfully ran for Governor.[2]
The Republican Party nominated businessman Mark Robinson (who was running for public office for the first time), and the Democratic Party nominated state representative Yvonne Lewis Holley. No matter who won, North Carolina would elect its first African-American lieutenant governor. Robinson won the general election, even while Democratic incumbent Gov. Roy Cooper won reelection.
Republican primary
Nominee
- Mark Robinson, businessman[3][4]
Eliminated in primary
- Buddy Bengel, North Carolina Education Lottery commissioner[5]
- Deborah Cochran, former mayor of Mount Airy[6]
- Renee Ellmers, former U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 2nd congressional district[7]
- Greg Gebhardt, North Carolina National Guardsman and U.S. Army veteran[8]
- Mark Johnson, North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction[9][10]
- John L. Ritter, attorney[11]
- Scott Stone, former state representative[12]
- Andy Wells, state senator[13]
Declined
- Mark Brody, state representative[14]
- Jim Puckett, Mecklenburg County commissioner[15][16]
- Mark Walker, incumbent U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 6th congressional district[17]
Polling
| Poll source | Date(s) administered |
Sample size[lower-alpha 1] |
Margin of error |
Buddy Bengel |
Deborah Cochran |
Renee Ellmers |
Greg Gebhardt |
Mark Johnson |
John Ritter |
Mark Robinson |
Scott Stone |
Andy Wells |
Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harper Polling/Civitas Institute | December 2–4, 2019 | 500 (LV) | ± 4.38% | 5% | 8% | 7% | 3% | 3% | 1% | 4% | 1% | 1% | 67% |
Results
Primary results by county:
Robinson
- Robinson—61-70%
- Robinson—51-60%
- Robinson—41-50%
- Robinson—31-40%
- Robinson—21-30%
Wells
- Wells—41-50%
Ritter
- Ritter—31-40%
Ellmers
- Ellmers—21-30%
Cochran
- Cochran—41-50%
Stone
- Stone—11-20%
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mark Robinson | 240,843 | 32.52% | |
| Republican | Andy Wells | 107,824 | 14.56% | |
| Republican | Mark Johnson | 89,200 | 12.04% | |
| Republican | John L. Ritter | 85,023 | 11.48% | |
| Republican | Renee Ellmers | 50,526 | 6.82% | |
| Republican | Greg Gebhardt | 50,474 | 6.81% | |
| Republican | Deborah Cochran | 48,234 | 6.51% | |
| Republican | Scott Stone | 48,193 | 6.51% | |
| Republican | Buddy Bengel | 20,395 | 2.75% | |
| Total votes | 740,712 | 100.00% | ||
Democratic primary
Nominee
- Yvonne Lewis Holley, state representative[12]
Eliminated in primary
- Chaz Beasley, state representative[19]
- Ron Newton, candidate for lieutenant governor in 2016[20]
- Allen Thomas, Hoke County commissioner[21]
- Bill Toole, environmental attorney, former Belmont city councilman, and former chairman of the Gaston County Democratic Party[22]
- Terry Van Duyn, state senator[23]
Withdrawn
- Cal Cunningham, former state senator (running for the U.S. Senate)[24]
Polling
| Poll source | Date(s) administered |
Sample size[lower-alpha 1] |
Margin of error |
Chaz Beasley |
Yvonne Holley |
Ron Newton |
Allen Thomas |
Bill Toole |
Terry Van Duyn |
Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Policy Polling | February 4–5, 2020 | 604 | - | 6% | 7% | 1% | 4% | 2% | 5% | 75% |
| Public Policy Polling | January 10–13, 2020 | 509 | - | 3% | 7% | 2% | 6% | 2% | 4% | 77% |
Results
Primary results by county:
Lewis Holley
- Lewis Holley—41-50%
- Lewis Holley—31-40%
- Lewis Holley—21-30%
Van Duyn
- Van Duyn—61-70%
- Van Duyn—41-50%
- Van Duyn—31-40%
- Van Duyn—21-30%
Beasley
- Beasley—51-60%
- Beasley—41-50%
- Beasley—31-40%
- Beasley—21-30%
Thomas
- Thomas—71-80%
- Thomas—61-70%
- Thomas—51-60%
- Thomas—41-50%
- Thomas—31-40%
Toole
- Toole—31-40%
Newton
- Newton—51-60%
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Yvonne Lewis Holley | 309,274 | 26.58% | |
| Democratic | Terry Van Duyn | 237,885 | 20.44% | |
| Democratic | Chaz Beasley | 219,503 | 18.86% | |
| Democratic | Allen Thomas | 219,229 | 18.84% | |
| Democratic | Bill Toole | 111,843 | 9.61% | |
| Democratic | Ron Newton | 65,970 | 5.67% | |
| Total votes | 1,163,704 | 100.00% | ||
Because no candidate in the Democratic primary won more than 30 percent of the vote, second-place finisher Terry Van Duyn was entitled to call for a runoff, or "second primary," if she chose to do so.[25] However, Van Duyn chose not to call for a runoff, and Yvonne Holley was awarded the Democratic nomination.[26]
General election
Polling
| Poll source | Date(s) administered |
Sample size |
Margin of error |
Mark Robinson (R) |
Yvonne Lewis Holley (D) |
Other | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Carolina University | October 27–28, 2020 | 1,103 (LV) | ± 3.4% | 47% | 43% | 2%[lower-alpha 2] | 8% |
| Cardinal Point Analytics (R) | October 27–28, 2020 | 750 (LV) | ± 3.6% | 45% | 44% | – | 12% |
| Meeting Street Insights (R) | October 24–27, 2020 | 600 (LV) | ± 4% | 46% | 47% | – | – |
| SurveyUSA | October 23–26, 2020 | 627 (LV) | ± 4.9% | 47% | 44% | – | 9% |
| Harper Polling/Civitas (R) | October 22–25, 2020 | 504 (LV) | ± 4.4% | 43% | 46% | – | 10% |
| East Carolina University | October 15–18, 2020 | 1,155 (LV) | ± 3.4% | 47% | 42% | 1%[lower-alpha 3] | 9% |
| East Carolina University | October 2–4, 2020 | 1,232 (LV) | ± 3.2% | 45% | 45% | 2%[lower-alpha 4] | 9% |
| Harper Polling/Civitas (R) | September 17–20, 2020 | 612 (LV) | ± 3.96% | 43% | 40% | – | 16% |
| SurveyUSA | September 10–13, 2020 | 596 (LV) | ± 5.6% | 41% | 41% | – | 18% |
| East Carolina University | August 29–30, 2020 | 1,101 (LV) | ± 3.4% | 43% | 40% | 3%[lower-alpha 5] | 14% |
| Cardinal Point Analytics (R) | July 22–24, 2020 | 735 (LV) | ± 3.6% | 46% | 38% | – | 16% |
| Cardinal Point Analytics (R) | July 13–15, 2020 | 547 (LV) | ± 4.2% | 43% | 39% | – | 18% |
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mark Robinson | 2,800,656 | 51.63% | -0.18% | |
| Democratic | Yvonne Lewis Holley | 2,623,458 | 48.37% | +3.05% | |
| Total votes | 5,424,114 | 100.0% | |||
| Republican hold | |||||
Robinson anti-semitism controversy
The Republican nominee attracted controversy in September as a result of his social media posts alleging negative Jewish influence in Hollywood, among other complaints.[28] He claimed that the movie Black Panther was "created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic marxist. How can this trash, that was only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets, invoke any pride?"[29] He also mischaracterized former first lady Michelle Obama as male and her husband Barack Obama as an atheist. Robinson stood by his comments in a September interview with Raleigh news station WRAL, stating, "I don’t back up from them a bit. May hurt some people’s feelings, some things that people may not like, but those are my personal opinions."[30]
Notes
- Key:
A – all adults
RV – registered voters
LV – likely voters
V – unclear - Did/would not vote with 2%
- Would/did not vote with 1%
- Would not vote with 2%
- "Some other candidate" with 3%; would not vote with 1%
References
- Leslie, Laura (November 9, 2016). "Split-ticket voting leads to mix of Democratic, Republican wins in NC". WRAL.
- "Dan Forest will hold campaign kick off rally in August". North State Journal. July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
- "The NCGOP's Lt. Gov. Candidate Apparently Thinks the Coronavirus Is a "Globalist" Conspiracy to Destroy Donald Trump". Indy Week. March 27, 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
- "Man whose pro-gun speech went viral announces candidacy for lieutenant governor". The Richmond Observer. July 3, 2019. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
- "New Bern resident, baseball team owner Bengel running for lieutenant governor". WCTI 12. Associated Press. June 3, 2019.
- "Cochran announces bid for lieutenant governor". The Mount Airy News. May 20, 2018.
- Brufke, Juliegrace (March 27, 2019). "Renee Ellmers announces bid for North Carolina lieutenant governor". The Hill.
- "Greg Gebhardt announces bid for NC lieutenant governor". Blue Ridge Now. July 22, 2019.
- Ball, Billy (October 3, 2018). "Superintendent Mark Johnson's new website may have broken North Carolina law". NC Policy Watch.
- "State Superintendent Mark Johnson joins the field seeking to be NC lieutenant governor". The News and Observer. November 12, 2019.
- "2020 North Carolina state candidate list" (PDF). Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- Harrison, Steve (April 9, 2019). "Scott Stone Makes It Official, Says He's Running for Lt. Governor". WFAE. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
- "Sen. Wells to run for NC Lt. Governor". The Taylorsville Times. September 12, 2019. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
- Paul Nielsen (February 9, 2019). Union County Weekly https://unioncountyweekly.com/news/2019/02/rep-brody-has-thought-about-running-for-lieutenant-governor/. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - Dunn, Andrew (January 7, 2019). "Jim Puckett considering campaign for lieutenant governor". Longleaf Politics.
- "Puckett will run for his old seat on Meck County Board of Commissioners". NC Business Today. July 29, 2019.
- Mutnick, Ally; Arkin, James (December 12, 2019). "Mark Walker's political future in jeopardy after redistricting". Politico.
- "NC SBE Contest Results". er.ncsbe.gov. North Carolina Board of Elections. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
- "Chaz Beasley announces run for lieutenant governor in NC". WCNC. March 21, 2019.
- NC State Board of Elections: State candidate list by contest
- Woolverton, Paul (March 10, 2019). "Two from Fayetteville-Fort Bragg region in lieutenant governor race". The Fayetteville Observer.
- Barrett, Michael (March 13, 2019). "Former Belmont city councilman eyes lieutenant governor's seat". Gaston Gazette.
- Boyle, John; Wadington, Katie (December 10, 2019). "Terry Van Duyn announces 2020 run for NC lieutenant governor". Asheville Citizen-Times.
- Morrill, Jim (June 17, 2018). "Democrat Cal Cunningham enters US Senate race, and draws fire from both sides". The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
- Asheville Citizen-Times
- Vaillancourt, Cory. "Van Duyn won't call for runoff in lieutenant governor election". www.smokymountainnews.com. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
- "State Composite Abstract Report - Contest.pdf" (PDF). North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
- "NC Endorsements". The Charlotte Observer. September 30, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
- Billman, Jeffrey (March 27, 2020). "The NCGOP's Lt. Gov. Candidate Apparently Thinks the Coronavirus Is a "Globalist" Conspiracy to Destroy Donald Trump". Indy Week. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
- Fain, Travis (September 25, 2020). "On Facebook, NC's Republican candidate for lieutenant governor lashes out, insults". WRAL. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
External links
- Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association, "North Carolina", Voting & Elections Toolkits
- "North Carolina: Election Tools, Deadlines, Dates, Rules, and Links", Vote.org, Oakland, CA
- "League of Women Voters of North Carolina". (State affiliate of the U.S. League of Women Voters)
- North Carolina at Ballotpedia
- Official campaign websites
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