By Galen Bacharier

NC Newsline

Josh Stein will be North Carolina’s next governor.

The attorney general defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson on Tuesday night in the race to be the next chief executive of the Tar Heel State. The win marks the end of a race that has been defined by Robinson’s controversies and scandals and sends Stein to the governor’s mansion to succeed his fellow Democrat, Gov. Roy Cooper.

The Associated Press projected Stein as the victor just under an hour-and-a-half after polls closed in North Carolina. As of 11:15 p.m., Stein had 55.2 percent of the vote to Robinson’s 39.9 percent with about 80 percent of precincts reporting, according to results from the State Board of Elections.

At a Democratic Party celebration in Raleigh, Stein told a cheering audience: “We chose hope over hate. Decency over division. That’s who we are as North Carolinians, and I am so glad that you have elected me to be your governor.”

And he called for the state to come together amid bitter divisions that have come to play such a large role in state politics.

“We must reject the politics of division, fear and hate that keep us from finding common ground,” he said. “We will go further when we go together — not as Democrats, not as Republicans, not as independents. But as North Carolinians.”

Stein also pledged to redouble efforts in western North Carolina to recover from Hurricane Helene.

“We will show up for the people of western North Carolina to help them rebuild safer and stronger than ever before,” he said.

Meanwhile, at a small and muted downtown Raleigh gathering just a few miles away, Robinson professed not to be personally disappointed at his defeat.

“I’m not sad one lick,” the lieutenant governor said. “I’m disappointed for you. I wanted this so bad for you. I wanted this for the people of North Carolina, not for me.”

He also quoted a concession speech of former President Richard Nixon, saying “because only if you’ve been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.”

He declined to indicate whether he would seek office again, saying only, “After the beginning of the year, I’m going to spend some time with my grandchildren. We’ll assess and we’ll move forward from there.”

A long-anticipated result

Stein — a lawyer who served in the state Senate before winning his race for AG in 2016 — rode to victory with a safe, steady campaign that homed in on core state issues, while capitalizing on his opponent’s political weaknesses in a torrent of TV ads.

Polling indicated for months that he held a commanding lead, as Robinson tried to fend off frequent controversy while bleeding support.

His victory means a Democrat will retain veto power over the Republican-led North Carolina legislature. Cooper, who launched Stein’s career in the public sector by appointing him to a role in the AG’s office, has used the veto pen to serve as a check on the GOP lawmakers — though he’s been frequently overridden by supermajorities.

“We have done something important here with this victory in the governor’s race,” Cooper told supporters Tuesday night. “Every election gives us choices. And there’s never been a wider gulf than between the choices in this race.”

Whether Stein will face those same Republican supermajorities in his coming term will depend on the outcomes of several key state House and Senate seats.

Stein emerged as the Democratic nominee with almost 70 percent of the vote in the primary, defeating former state Supreme Court Justice Mike Morgan. Robinson defeated state Treasurer Dale Folwell and attorney Bill Graham, earning almost 65 percent of the vote.

The matchup earned immediate national attention, as a top race in a presidential battleground and one of just two competitive governor’s races in the U.S.

Democrats mobilized to prevent Robinson from taking the reins in North Carolina, while Republicans saw a chance to flip the governor’s mansion and secure a legislative trifecta. Spending in the race between the two campaigns eclipsed $96 million — the vast majority of which came from the Stein campaign — not including spending from PACs and outside groups.

Robinson struggled throughout the campaign to break through a deluge of negative headlines and past comments. His opponent and critics seized on his previous assertions that abortion wasn’t warranted “under any circumstances,” and resulted from women who “weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” And his declaration from a church pulpit that “some folks need killing” was shown on repeat on television.

Investigations into a daycare formerly owned by him and his wife, as well as his wife’s nonprofit, attracted additional scrutiny.

In the final weeks of the race, Robinson saw a total collapse in party support — spurred by a CNN investigation that tied him to a series of explicit racist, sexist and homophobic comments made on a pornography website.

Robinson denied the comments were his and stayed in the race, forging on without the support of state and national Republican campaign groups. The Republican Governors’ Association halted ad spending and former President Donald Trump stopped inviting him to rallies, where Robinson had previously spoken and even taken the stage alongside the former president.

Election night results are unofficial, and vote totals will likely change over the next 10 days as local boards of election consider provisional, military, and overseas civilian ballots. The state Board of Elections is scheduled to meet Nov. 26 to certify the results.

NC Newsline’s Brandon Kingdollar contributed reporting.