Democrat Josh Stein Wins North Carolina Governor's Race

Democrat Attorney General Josh Stein will be the next governor of North Carolina, beating Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in a landslide, Fox News projected. 

The gubernatorial race was called at less than ten minutes after polls closed at 7:30 p.m., with less than 2 percent of the votes counted, showing Stein leading Robinson nearly 75 percent to 21 percent.

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Stein and Robinson were vying to replace Gov. Roy Cooper (D), who could not run again because of term limits.

Robinson’s campaign was fraught with scandal after CNN published a bombshell report on him in September, and several of his top staff members resigned. Several GOP governors pulled their support of him as well after the report was published, although Robinson denied the allegations. 

Polling throughout their campaigns showed Stein aggressively leading for months by at least 10 points. RealClearPolling predicted Stein would win by more than 14 points. 

Campaign finance reports show Stein raised 11 times more money than Robinson between July and October. 

While Cooper had control of the governorship for the past eight years, the North Carolina House and Senate have been dominated by Republicans since 2011. 

The battleground state notably voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. Pre-election data and early election experts predicted a win in North Carolina for the former president. 

Republicans were more enthusiastic during early voting in the state than they have been in the past, surpassing their Democrat counterparts by a slim margin, state data shows. Democrats had a 9.8-point lead in 2016 early voting, and a 5.6-point advantage in 2020 early voting. This year, Republicans held a 0.9-point lead.