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.

2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election

November 3, 2020
 
Nominee Mark Robinson Yvonne Lewis Holley
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 2,800,656 2,623,458
Percentage 51.63% 48.37%

County results
Robinson:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%
Holley:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%

Lieutenant Governor before election

Dan Forest
Republican

Elected Lieutenant Governor

Mark Robinson
Republican

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

Eliminated in primary

Declined

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:
Republican primary results[18]
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

Eliminated in primary

Withdrawn

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:
Democratic primary results[18]
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

North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2020[27]
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

  1. Key:
    A – all adults
    RV – registered voters
    LV – likely voters
    V – unclear
  2. Did/would not vote with 2%
  3. Would/did not vote with 1%
  4. Would not vote with 2%
  5. "Some other candidate" with 3%; would not vote with 1%

References

  1. Leslie, Laura (November 9, 2016). "Split-ticket voting leads to mix of Democratic, Republican wins in NC". WRAL.
  2. "Dan Forest will hold campaign kick off rally in August". North State Journal. July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  3. "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.
  4. "Man whose pro-gun speech went viral announces candidacy for lieutenant governor". The Richmond Observer. July 3, 2019. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  5. "New Bern resident, baseball team owner Bengel running for lieutenant governor". WCTI 12. Associated Press. June 3, 2019.
  6. "Cochran announces bid for lieutenant governor". The Mount Airy News. May 20, 2018.
  7. Brufke, Juliegrace (March 27, 2019). "Renee Ellmers announces bid for North Carolina lieutenant governor". The Hill.
  8. "Greg Gebhardt announces bid for NC lieutenant governor". Blue Ridge Now. July 22, 2019.
  9. Ball, Billy (October 3, 2018). "Superintendent Mark Johnson's new website may have broken North Carolina law". NC Policy Watch.
  10. "State Superintendent Mark Johnson joins the field seeking to be NC lieutenant governor". The News and Observer. November 12, 2019.
  11. "2020 North Carolina state candidate list" (PDF). Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  12. Harrison, Steve (April 9, 2019). "Scott Stone Makes It Official, Says He's Running for Lt. Governor". WFAE. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  13. "Sen. Wells to run for NC Lt. Governor". The Taylorsville Times. September 12, 2019. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
  14. 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)
  15. Dunn, Andrew (January 7, 2019). "Jim Puckett considering campaign for lieutenant governor". Longleaf Politics.
  16. "Puckett will run for his old seat on Meck County Board of Commissioners". NC Business Today. July 29, 2019.
  17. Mutnick, Ally; Arkin, James (December 12, 2019). "Mark Walker's political future in jeopardy after redistricting". Politico.
  18. "NC SBE Contest Results". er.ncsbe.gov. North Carolina Board of Elections. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  19. "Chaz Beasley announces run for lieutenant governor in NC". WCNC. March 21, 2019.
  20. NC State Board of Elections: State candidate list by contest
  21. Woolverton, Paul (March 10, 2019). "Two from Fayetteville-Fort Bragg region in lieutenant governor race". The Fayetteville Observer.
  22. Barrett, Michael (March 13, 2019). "Former Belmont city councilman eyes lieutenant governor's seat". Gaston Gazette.
  23. Boyle, John; Wadington, Katie (December 10, 2019). "Terry Van Duyn announces 2020 run for NC lieutenant governor". Asheville Citizen-Times.
  24. 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.
  25. Asheville Citizen-Times
  26. Vaillancourt, Cory. "Van Duyn won't call for runoff in lieutenant governor election". www.smokymountainnews.com. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  27. "State Composite Abstract Report - Contest.pdf" (PDF). North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  28. "NC Endorsements". The Charlotte Observer. September 30, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  29. 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.
  30. Fain, Travis (September 25, 2020). "On Facebook, NC's Republican candidate for lieutenant governor lashes out, insults". WRAL. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
Official campaign websites
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