Raleigh is the capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina,after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeast,the 41st-most populous city in the U.S.,and the largest city of the Research Triangle metro area. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees,which line the streets in the heart of the city. The city covers a land area of 148.54 square miles (384.7 km2). The U.S. Census Bureau counted the city's population as 467,665 at the 2020 census. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. It is ranked as a sufficiency-level world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city of Raleigh is named after Sir Walter Raleigh,who established the now-lost Roanoke Colony in present-day Dare County.
Wake County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census,its population was 1,129,410,making it North Carolina's most populous county. From July 2005 to July 2006,Wake County was the 9th-fastest growing county in the United States,with Cary and Raleigh being the 8th- and 15th-fastest growing communities,respectively.
Michael Francis Easley is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 72nd governor of North Carolina from 2001 to 2009. He is the first governor of North Carolina to have been convicted of a felony. The conviction was later expunged by the Chief Judge of the Superior Court of Wake County. A member of the Democratic Party,Easley was North Carolina's second Catholic governor.
Roy Asberry Cooper III is an American attorney and politician serving since 2017 as the 75th governor of North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party,he served as the 49th attorney general of North Carolina from 2001 to 2017,and in the North Carolina General Assembly,in both the House,from 1987 to 1991,and the Senate,from 1991 to 2001.
Dennis Alvin Wicker is an American lawyer and politician from Sanford who served as a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives (1981–1993) and as the 31st Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina (1993–2001). As lieutenant governor,he became the first statewide elected official to chair the State Board of Community Colleges,which sets policy for the state's 58-campus system. Wicker was also a member of the North Carolina State Board of Education and the State Board of Economic Development.
Cheri Lynn Beasley is an American attorney and jurist who served as the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 2019 to 2020 as well as an associate justice from 2012 to 2019. She was defeated by Paul Martin Newby in 2020. Beasley previously served on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and as a district court judge in Cumberland County,North Carolina.
Carolyn Joyce Hunt is an American educator and politician who,as the wife of Jim Hunt,served as the Second Lady of North Carolina from 1973 to 1977 and twice-served as the First Lady of North Carolina,from 1977 to 1985 and again from 1993 to 2001. She is the longest serving first lady in North Carolina history and she and her husband were the first governor and first lady to serve two four-year terms in North Carolina. As first lady,she served as the Chairwoman of the advisory council for the Governor's Office of Citizen Affairs,which promoted volunteerism throughout the state,and as Chairwoman of the North Carolina Friendship Force Program,a chapter of Friendship Force International,which promoted international student exchange programs in state public schools. In between her terms as first lady,she served on the board of directors and the executive committee of Friendship Force International and,in 1986,was elected to the Wilson County Public School Board.
Joshua Harold Stein is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 51st attorney general of North Carolina since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party,Stein previously served in the North Carolina Senate from 2009 to 2016. He is also the Democratic nominee in the 2024 North Carolina gubernatorial election.
Kristin Bernhardt Cooper is an American lawyer who has been First Lady of the state of North Carolina since January 1,2017.
Stormie Denise Forte is an American lawyer,radio host,and politician. She is the first African-American woman to serve on the Raleigh City Council. She was appointed to the council on July 14,2020 and represents District D,which encompasses Southwest Raleigh. On July 8,2022,Stormie filed to run for Raleigh's at-large district in the 2022 Raleigh election.
Alice Harper Willson Broughton was an American civic leader who served as the First Lady of North Carolina from 1941 to 1945 as the wife of Governor J. Melville Broughton. She and her husband were the first governor and first lady from Wake County to live in the North Carolina Executive Mansion. During World War II she was active in the war effort,promoting victory gardens across the state and establishing one at the governor's mansion,christening liberty ships including the SS Zebulon B. Vance and the SS Donald W. Bain,and donating rubber to the armed forces.
Dorothy Ann "Dottie" Martin is an American educator and real estate broker who,as the wife of Governor James G. Martin,served as the First Lady of North Carolina from 1985 to 1993. As first lady,she supported protections for children and substance abuse prevention efforts. Martin also relandscaped the grounds of the North Carolina Executive Mansion and contributed to the establishment of a program within the North Carolina Department of Transportation for planting wildflower beds along state highways. She also served as the chairwoman of the North Carolina Commission on Child Victimization and the North Carolina Commission on the Family.
Jeanelle Coulter Moore was an American schoolteacher,patron of the arts,and civic leader who,as the wife of Governor Dan K. Moore,served as the First Lady of North Carolina from 1965 to 1969. She was the first wife of a governor in North Carolina to have a full-time secretary and maintain her own office in the North Carolina Executive Mansion,and she served as president of the Sir Walter Cabinet while her husband was in office. She was responsible for the creation of the Executive Mansion Fine Arts Committee within the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources,which provides funding to restore and decorate the official residence,and established a chapel at the Raleigh Correctional Center for Women. Prior to her time as first lady,Moore served as a board member of the North Carolina Fund and of the North Carolina School of the Arts,having been appointed by Governor Terry Sanford. In 1980 she received the North Carolina Award for Public service.
Margaret Rose Sanford was an American civic leader,teacher,and philanthropist who,as the wife of Terry Sanford,served as First Lady of North Carolina from 1961 to 1965. Prior to entering public life,she worked as a teacher in North Carolina and Kentucky. As first lady,Sanford hosted the first annual North Carolina Symphony Ball in 1961,established a library of North Carolinian books at the North Carolina Executive Mansion,and planted a rose garden on the mansion's grounds. She was the first governor's wife to decorate the Governor's Western Residence in Asheville. Sanford sent her children to the first racially integrated public elementary school in Raleigh,North Carolina,while the family lived in the executive mansion. She served on the board of the Methodist Home for Children,the North Carolina School of the Arts,the Stagville Plantation Restoration Board,and East Carolina University. She was also a member of the Education Commission of the States and the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. While Sanford's husband served as president of Duke University,she was appointed by Governor Jim Hunt to serve on a delegation of university faculty and administrators to China in 1975.
Matilda Bradford "Tillie" Ehringhaus was an American civic leader who,as the wife of John C. B. Ehringhaus,served as First Lady of North Carolina from 1933 to 1937. Since her time in the North Carolina Executive Mansion was marked by the Great Depression,she made budget cuts and adaptations around the mansion to save money for the state,including having the wattage of the chandeliers lowered so that the electric bill would not exceed monthly expenses. As first lady,she hosted musical salons and was noted for her beauty and charm. After her husband's death,Ehringhaus co-edited the North Carolina Almanac and State Industrial Guide and,in 1952,served as an alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
Michael Francis Easley Jr. is an American lawyer who is the United States attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Helen Whitaker Fowle Knight was an American political hostess. When her widowed father,Daniel Gould Fowle,became Governor of North Carolina in 1889,she served as the state's First Lady. She was the first North Carolinian first lady to live in the North Carolina Executive Mansion.
Cornelia Deaderick Glenn was an American society hostess and temperance activist who,as the wife of Robert Broadnax Glenn,served as First Lady of North Carolina from 1905 to 1909. She was involved in the temperance movement and avidly supported her husband's 1908 Prohibition campaign that banned liquor statewide. A devout Presbyterian,she was the founder of one of Winston-Salem's first benevolent societies.
Betty Landon Ray McCain was an American politician and political strategist. She was the North Carolina Secretary of Cultural Resources during Governor Jim Hunt's administration and was the first woman to chair the North Carolina Democratic Party. She was also the first woman named to the state's Advisory Budget Committee. As Secretary of Cultural Resources,McCain opened the North Carolina Museum of History,rededicated USS North Carolina (BB-55),and secured funding for the excavation of the Queen Anne's Revenge. She received the North Carolina Award in 2009 and was inducted into the North Carolina Women's Hall of Fame in 2010.
Yolanda Hill Robinson is an American accountant and non-profit executive. As the wife of Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson,she has served as the Second Lady of North Carolina since 2021 and is the first African-American woman to serve as Second Lady of North Carolina. She sits on the board of American Leadership Academy North Carolina and on the boards of two of its affiliated charter schools. Robinson founded Balanced Nutrition,Inc.,a non-profit organization that provides meals to children in daycare facilities. In 2024,the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced that Robinson owed the state $132,000 following a compliance review of her non-profit.
