North Carolina governor race: Mark Robinson and Josh Stein win primaries
- Published
North Carolina voters are projected to have picked two political polar opposites in the race to become the state's next governor in November.
Mark Robinson was chosen as the Republican candidate, while Josh Stein won the Democratic primary vote.
Mr Robinson would be North Carolina's first black governor, while Mr Stein would be its first Jewish governor.
The swing state race is seen as a proxy for the US presidential duel between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
To become their respective party's gubernatorial nominee in the Super Tuesday primary, Mr Robinson beat two other Republicans, while Mr Stein beat four fellow Democrats.
Mr Trump has endorsed Mr Robinson, calling him "Martin Luther King on steroids" in reference to the civil rights leader.
Mr Robinson, a former furniture manufacturer, was elected to be the state's first black lieutenant governor in 2020.
He shot to fame after a viral 2018 speech he gave defending gun rights at a Greensboro City Council meeting, which landed him a board position with the National Rifle Association.
His life story of coming back from personal bankruptcy and jobs losses that he blamed on US free trade agreements have resonated with working-class North Carolinians.
Mr Robinson has drawn criticism for past disparaging statements about LGBT people and Jews, leading opponents to cast him as an extremist.
But in a speech last month to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr Robinson denied nurturing hatred for any groups.
The mild-mannered Mr Stein is a Harvard-educated lawyer who has had a more conventional climb up North Carolina's political ladder to become attorney general.
He has been endorsed by the state's current Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, who is stepping down due to term limits.
Mr Stein has pledged to build on Mr Cooper's agenda to invest in public education and clean energy and resist any Republican move for abortion restrictions.
His opponents have sought to tie him to Mr Biden in an effort to draw on opposition to the Democratic president in the conservative-leaning state.
But Mr Stein's supporters hope his moderate style of politics will appeal to voters over the firebrand Mr Robinson.
In 2021, Mr Robinson told a church congregation that American children should not be told about "transgenderism, homosexuality or any of that filth".
The lieutenant governor stood by his remark and said he was talking about sexually graphic books in school libraries.
Last year he acknowledged having made "poorly worded" remarks in the past about Jews, including suggesting in 2018 on Facebook that the movie Black Panther had been created by Hollywood to take "shekels" from African Americans, but he denied antisemitism.
Mr Robinson has recently pointed out that he visited Israel after it was attacked by Hamas on 7 October.
North Carolina was the only presidential battle ground voting in Tuesday's elections in US states from Alabama to Alaska.
Mr Trump beat Mr Biden in 2020 by just over a percentage point in the Tar Heel State.
Republicans have won North Carolina in 11 of the last 13 presidential elections, but Democrats have prevailed in all but one governor's race there since 1992.