2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election

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2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election
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←  2016 November 3, 2020 2024  →
  NC Lt Gov Mark Robinson 2022 (cropped).png Yvonne Holley NC (cropped).jpg
Nominee Mark Robinson Yvonne Lewis Holley
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote2,800,6562,623,458
Percentage51.63%48.37%
NC Lieutenent gubernatorial election, 2020.svg
NC 2020 LG CD.svg
NC LTG SS.svg
2020.NC.LGOV.svg
NC Lieutenant Governor 2020.svg
Robinson:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     >90%
Holley:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     >90%
Tie:     50%
Lieutenant Governor before election

Dan Forest
Republican

Elected Lieutenant Governor

Mark Robinson
Republican

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.

Contents

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 (a first time public office candidate), and the Democratic Party nominated state representative Yvonne Lewis Holley. Notwithstanding the winner, North Carolina would elect its first African-American lieutenant governor. Robinson won the general election, while Democratic incumbent Gov. Roy Cooper won re-election.

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated in primary

Declined

Polling

Poll sourceDate(s)
administered		Sample
size [a] 		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 [18] December 2–4, 2019500 (LV)± 4.38%5%8%7%3%3%1%4%1%1%67%

Results

Primary results by county: Robinson .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{} 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% 2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial Republican primary county map.svg
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%
Republican primary results [19]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Mark Robinson 240,843 32.52%
Republican Andy Wells 107,82414.56%
Republican Mark Johnson 89,20012.04%
Republican John L. Ritter85,02311.48%
Republican Renee Ellmers 50,5266.82%
Republican Greg Gebhardt50,4746.81%
Republican Deborah Cochran48,2346.51%
Republican Scott Stone 48,1936.51%
Republican Buddy Bengel20,3952.75%
Total votes740,712 100.00%

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated in primary

Withdrawn

Polling

Poll sourceDate(s)
administered		Sample
size [a] 		Margin
of error		Chaz
Beasley		Yvonne
Holley		Ron
Newton		Allen
Thomas		Bill
Toole		Terry
Van Duyn		Undecided
Public Policy Polling [26] February 4–5, 2020604-6%7%1%4%2%5%75%
Public Policy Polling [27] January 10–13, 2020509-3%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% 2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial Democratic primary county map.svg
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%
Democratic primary results [19]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Yvonne Lewis Holley 309,274 26.58%
Democratic Terry Van Duyn 237,88520.44%
Democratic Chaz Beasley 219,50318.86%
Democratic Allen Thomas219,22918.84%
Democratic Bill Toole111,8439.61%
Democratic Ron Newton65,9705.67%
Total votes1,163,704 100.00%

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. [28] However, Van Duyn chose not to call for a runoff, and Yvonne Holley was awarded the Democratic nomination. [29]

General election

Campaign

Robinson 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. [30] He claimed that the movie Black Panther was "created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic marxist [sic]. How can this trash, that was only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets, invoke any pride?" [31] 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." [32]

Endorsements

Yvonne Lewis Holley (D)

Newspapers

Polling

Graphical summary

Poll sourceDate(s)
administered		Sample
size		Margin of
error		Mark
Robinson (R)		Yvonne
Lewis Holley (D)		OtherUndecided
East Carolina University [35] October 27–28, 20201,103 (LV)± 3.4%47%43%2% [b] 8%
Cardinal Point Analytics (R) [36] October 27–28, 2020750 (LV)± 3.6%45%44%–12%
Meeting Street Insights (R) [37] October 24–27, 2020600 (LV)± 4%46%47%––
SurveyUSA [38] October 23–26, 2020627 (LV)± 4.9%47%44%–9%
Harper Polling/Civitas (R) [39] October 22–25, 2020504 (LV)± 4.4%43%46%–10%
East Carolina University [40] October 15–18, 20201,155 (LV)± 3.4%47%42%1% [c] 9%
East Carolina University [41] October 2–4, 20201,232 (LV)± 3.2%45%45%2% [d] 9%
Harper Polling/Civitas (R) [42] September 17–20, 2020612 (LV)± 3.96%43%40%–16%
SurveyUSA [43] September 10–13, 2020596 (LV)± 5.6%41%41%–18%
East Carolina University [44] August 29–30, 20201,101 (LV)± 3.4%43%40%3% [e] 14%
Cardinal Point Analytics (R) [45] July 22–24, 2020735 (LV)±  3.6%46%38%–16%
Cardinal Point Analytics (R) [45] July 13–15, 2020547 (LV)± 4.2%43%39%–18%

Results

North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2020 [46]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Republican Mark Robinson 2,800,656 51.63% −0.18%
Democratic Yvonne Lewis Holley 2,623,45848.37%+3.05%
Total votes5,424,114 100.0%
Republican hold

By congressional district

Robinson won 8 of 13 congressional districts. [47]

DistrictRobinsonLewis HolleyRepresentative
1st 46%54% G. K. Butterfield
2nd 37%63% George Holding
Deborah K. Ross
3rd 62%38% Greg Murphy
4th 34%66% David Price
5th 68%32% Virginia Foxx
6th 39%61% Mark Walker
Kathy Manning
7th 59%41% David Rouzer
8th 54%46% Richard Hudson
9th 55%45% Dan Bishop
10th 69%31% Patrick McHenry
11th 57%43% Madison Cawthorn
12th 31%69% Alma Adams
13th 68%32% Ted Budd

Notes

  1. 1 2 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%

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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 December 19, 2019.
  12. 1 2 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. ↑ Nielsen, Paul (February 9, 2019). "Rep. Brody has thought about running for lieutenant governor". Union County Weekly. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  15. ↑ Dunn, Andrew (January 7, 2019). "Jim Puckett considering campaign for lieutenant governor". Longleaf Politics. Archived from the original on April 14, 2019. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  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. ↑ Harper Polling/Civitas Institute
  19. 1 2 "NC SBE Contest Results". er.ncsbe.gov. North Carolina Board of Elections. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  20. ↑ "Chaz Beasley announces run for lieutenant governor in NC". WCNC. March 21, 2019.
  21. ↑ "NC State Board of Elections: State candidate list by contest" (PDF). Retrieved August 18, 2024.
  22. ↑ Woolverton, Paul (March 10, 2019). "Two from Fayetteville-Fort Bragg region in lieutenant governor race". The Fayetteville Observer.
  23. ↑ Barrett, Michael (March 13, 2019). "Former Belmont city councilman eyes lieutenant governor's seat". Gaston Gazette.
  24. ↑ Boyle, John; Wadington, Katie (December 10, 2019). "Terry Van Duyn announces 2020 run for NC lieutenant governor". Asheville Citizen-Times.
  25. ↑ 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.
  26. ↑ Public Policy Polling
  27. ↑ Public Policy Polling
  28. ↑ Thompson, David. "WNC's Terry Van Duyn weighs runoff in Democratic lieutenant governor race". The Asheville Citizen Times. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
  29. ↑ Vaillancourt, Cory. "Van Duyn won't call for runoff in lieutenant governor election". www.smokymountainnews.com. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  30. ↑ "NC Endorsements". The Charlotte Observer. September 30, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  31. ↑ 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.
  32. ↑ Fain, Travis (September 25, 2020). "On Facebook, NC's Republican candidate for lieutenant governor lashes out, insults". WRAL. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  33. ↑ "Endorsements: Our choices for NC Lt. Gov, Attorney General, Auditor, Treasurer and Insurance". The Charlotte Observer. October 21, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
  34. ↑ McDonald, Thomasi; Tauss, Leigh; Blest, Paul (October 14, 2020). "2020 Endorsements: Council of State". INDY Week. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
  35. ↑ East Carolina University
  36. ↑ Cardinal Point Analytics (R)
  37. ↑ Meeting Street Insights (R) Archived 2020-10-31 at the Wayback Machine
  38. ↑ SurveyUSA
  39. ↑ Harper Polling/Civitas (R)
  40. ↑ East Carolina University
  41. ↑ East Carolina University
  42. ↑ Harper Polling/Civitas (R)
  43. ↑ SurveyUSA
  44. ↑ East Carolina University
  45. 1 2 Cardinal Point Analytics (R)
  46. ↑ "State Composite Abstract Report - Contest.pdf" (PDF). North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  47. ↑ "DRA 2020". Daves Redistricting. Retrieved August 18, 2024.

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