Wayne Goodwin

After serving as President of the Young Democrats of North Carolina, Goodwin served four full terms in the North Carolina state House. Goodwin campaigned as the Democratic nominee for the position of North Carolina Commissioner of Labor in the 2004 election, losing in a close race to incumbent Republican Cherie Berry.

Goodwin served as the Assistant Commissioner of Insurance and Assistant State Fire Marshal for the State of North Carolina from 2005 through 2008. In 2008, Goodwin filed to run for Commissioner of Insurance after the surprise retirement of longtime Commissioner Jim Long.[4] Goodwin defeated David Smith in the Democratic primary 56%–43%[5] and went on to beat Republican John Odom and Libertarian Mark McMains with 51.57% of the vote.[6] Goodwin won re-election in the 2012 general contest by almost four percentage points.

He was a candidate for re-election in 2016.[7] After very narrowly losing the general election, Goodwin announced that he would run for chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party.[8] With the support of 92% of ballots cast, he was elected to lead the state party on Feb. 11, 2017.[9] Two years later, in January 2019, Goodwin won unanimous re-election to a second term as Chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party.[10]

He is running for a third (non-consecutive) term as Insurance Commissioner in the 2020 election.

Goodwin was a Morehead Scholar and US Senate/William Randolph Hearst Scholar. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Political Science and then went on to graduate from the UNC School of Law. He was married to Melanie Wade Goodwin, also a former state legislator and attorney, until her death at age 50 in 2020. They are the parents of two children.[11]

• Wayne Goodwin campaign site
• Wayne's World
• Wayne Goodwin at Ballotpedia
• Appearances on C-SPAN