2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election

2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election

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Nominee Mark Robinson Yvonne Lewis Holley Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 2,800,656 2,623,458 Percentage 51.6% 48.4%

County results Congressional Districts results Precinct results 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.

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, while Democratic incumbent Gov. Roy Cooper won re-election.

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Mark Robinson, businessman ^{[3] [4]}

Eliminated in primary

• Buddy Bengel, North Carolina Education Lottery commissioner ^[5]
• Deborah Cochran, former mayor of Mount Airy ^[6]
• Renee Ellmers, former U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 2nd congressional district ^[7]
• Greg Gebhardt, North Carolina National Guardsman and U.S. Army veteran ^[8]
• Mark Johnson, North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction ^{[9] [10]}
• John L. Ritter, attorney ^[11]
• Scott Stone, former state representative ^[12]
• Andy Wells, state senator ^[13]

Declined

• Mark Brody, state representative ^[14]
• Jim Puckett, Mecklenburg County commissioner ^{[15] [16]}
• Mark Walker, incumbent U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 6th congressional district ^[17]

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:

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 ^[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

Candidates

Nominee

• Yvonne Lewis Holley, state representative ^[12]

Eliminated in primary

• Chaz Beasley, state representative ^[19]
• Ron Newton, candidate for lieutenant governor in 2016 ^[20]
• Allen Thomas, Hoke County commissioner ^[21]
• Bill Toole, environmental attorney, former Belmont city councilman, and former chairman of the Gaston County Democratic Party ^[22]
• Terry Van Duyn, state senator ^[23]

Withdrawn

• Cal Cunningham, former state senator (ran for the U.S. Senate) ^[24]

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:

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 ^[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

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. ^[27] 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?" ^[28] 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." ^[29]

Endorsements

Yvonne Lewis Holley (D)

Newspapers

• The Charlotte Observer ^[30]
• Indy Week ^[31]

Polling

Graphical summary

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) Archived 2020-10-31 at the Wayback Machine	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

State Senate Districts results

State House Districts results

North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2020 ^[32]

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

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 December 19, 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. 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. "NC SBE Contest Results". er.ncsbe.gov. North Carolina Board of Elections. Retrieved June 5, 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 March 11, 2020.
27. "NC Endorsements". The Charlotte Observer. September 30, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
28. 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.
29. Fain, Travis (September 25, 2020). "On Facebook, NC's Republican candidate for lieutenant governor lashes out, insults". WRAL. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
30. "Endorsements: Our choices for NC Lt. Gov, Attorney General, Auditor, Treasurer and Insurance". The Charlotte Observer. October 21, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
31. McDonald, Thomasi; Tauss, Leigh; Blest, Paul (October 14, 2020). "2020 Endorsements: Council of State". INDY Week. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
32. "State Composite Abstract Report - Contest.pdf" (PDF). North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved November 24, 2020.

External links

• Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association, "North Carolina", Voting & Elections Toolkits
• "North Carolina: Election Tools, Deadlines, Dates, Rules, and Links", Vote.org , Oakland, CA
• "League of Women Voters of North Carolina". (State affiliate of the U.S. League of Women Voters)
• North Carolina at Ballotpedia

Official campaign websites

• Yvonne Lewis Holley (D) for Lt. Governor Archived 2019-06-21 at the Wayback Machine
• Mark Robinson (R) for Lt. Governor