Updated as of 11:04 p.m. on Nov. 5 to include a map of North Carolina votes.
AP News has called North Carolina’s governor race in favor of Democratic candidate and Attorney General Josh Stein. With 23% of the votes counted, Stein has a 52.7% lead. Robinson has 42.6% of the vote.
Stein beat Lt. Gov. and Republican candidate Mark Robinson with a steady lead in a race defined by starkly opposed campaigns. Projected ahead of Robinson in the last three Elon Poll surveys, Stein’s victory maintains the divide between North Carolina’s Republican-majority General Assembly.
“Tonight, the people of North Carolina resoundingly embraced a vision that’s optimistic, forward-looking and welcoming,” Stein said at his watch party event in Raleigh. “A vision that’s about creating opportunities for every North Carolinian. We chose hope over hate. Competence over chaos. Decency over division. That’s who we are as North Carolinians.”
In North Carolina’s two-horse race for governor, Stein also beat Libertarian Mike Ross, the Green Party’s Wayne Turner and the Constitution Party’s Vinny Smith. Stein served as a lawyer before he was elected as the state’s attorney general in 2016. He also previously served as a state senator.
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson concedes from the gubernatorial race on Nov. 5 at his watch party in Raleigh.
In six of the last eight election years, candidates from opposing parties have won in North Carolina’s presidential and gubernatorial elections. While Trump won the state with 49.9% of the vote in 2020, Democrats have won seven gubernatorial elections and Republicans have won seven presidential elections since 1992.
In the months leading up to Election Day, Stein campaigned across North Carolina and Alamance County on a variety of platforms, such as lowering costs, increasing minimum wage and cutting taxes for working families. He has also campaigned on funding public education and defending LGBTQ+ rights.