North Carolina just lived through a political earthquake. Honestly, if you blinked, you might have missed how a race that started as a "toss-up" turned into a double-digit blowout. The North Carolina governor race 2024 wasn't just another election; it was a collision of two completely different versions of the South.
Josh Stein won. He didn't just win; he crushed it. With over 3 million votes—the most any statewide candidate has ever received in North Carolina history—Stein secured roughly 54.9% of the total. Compare that to Mark Robinson’s 40.1%. That’s a gap of nearly 15 points. In a state where presidential races are decided by razor-thin margins, this was a massive shift. People were talking about North Carolina being a purple state, but for the governor's mansion, it looked pretty blue.
Why the North Carolina Governor Race 2024 Defied the Odds
You’ve gotta look at the split-ticket voting to understand how weird this actually was. While Donald Trump carried the state at the top of the ticket, Josh Stein was busy over-performing in places Democrats usually just dream about. Stein managed to win 37 counties. Robinson took 63. But here is the kicker: Robinson didn't flip a single county that had previously gone Democratic. Not one.
Stein's victory margin was the largest the state has seen since 1980. Think about that. We are talking about a 14.8 percentage point lead. Most analysts expected a nail-biter because North Carolina has a habit of electing Democratic governors while voting Republican for President—it’s happened in six of the last eight election cycles—but nobody saw a 15-point gap coming in the early days of the campaign.
The Scandal That Changed Everything
Basically, the race was neck-and-neck until the fall. Then the CNN report dropped.
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It's hard to overstate how much the "Black Nazi" controversy derailed Mark Robinson. The allegations about comments made on a pornographic forum years ago led to a mass exodus of his campaign staff. Key Republican leaders started keeping their distance. Even Trump, who had previously called Robinson "Martin Luther King on steroids," stopped appearing with him.
The fallout was immediate.
- Robinson's polling numbers tanked.
- Fundraising dried up for the GOP side.
- Stein’s campaign flooded the airwaves with ads featuring Robinson’s own past comments.
Stein, the state’s Attorney General, played it safe and stayed focused on "competency over chaos." It worked. He won independent voters by a whopping 23% margin according to exit polls. You can't win a purple state without the middle, and Robinson lost the middle completely.
Breaking Down the Vote: Urban vs. Rural
North Carolina is basically three different states stitched together: the urban hubs, the booming suburbs, and the rural heartland. Stein dominated the first two. In urban areas across 14 counties, he pulled in over 1.2 million votes. The suburbs were even more decisive, where he netted roughly 1.77 million.
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Robinson did well in rural areas, taking 16 of those counties convincingly, but the math just wasn't there. The "Veto Power" was also on the line. Because Stein won so big, it helped down-ballot Democrats just enough to break the Republican supermajority in the state House by a single seat. This is huge. It means Stein actually has the power to use his veto pen without it being immediately overridden.
Who is Josh Stein?
Stein isn't a new face. He served as Attorney General since 2017 and was a state senator before that. He’s also making history as North Carolina’s first Jewish governor. His platform was pretty standard Democratic fare:
- Increasing teacher pay.
- Protecting abortion access (he’s been a vocal critic of the state’s 12-week ban).
- Investing in technical education.
He succeeds Roy Cooper, who was term-limited. Cooper was popular, and Stein basically ran as "Cooper 2.0"—stable, predictable, and focused on legal nuts and bolts rather than culture war firestorms.
What This Means for 2026 and Beyond
If you're looking for actionable takeaways from the North Carolina governor race 2024, look at the suburbs. The shift in places like Cabarrus and Alamance—counties that hadn't gone blue in decades—suggests that North Carolina's demographic shift is accelerating.
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What should you do with this info?
- Watch the Legislature: Since the GOP lost their supermajority, expect a lot of "gridlock" that is actually just a return to the check-and-balance system. Stein will likely veto any further abortion restrictions, and the GOP will have to find a few Democrats to flip if they want to pass them.
- Monitor the Courts: With Stein moving to the Governor's office, the Attorney General seat (won by Jeff Jackson) becomes the new front line for legal challenges against legislative maps.
- Pay Attention to the "Robinson Effect": This race is going to be a case study for years on candidate quality. For future elections, expect both parties to vet their candidates much more aggressively before the primary.
North Carolina remains a divided state, but for now, the Governor's office is a fortress for the Democrats.
Next Steps for Observers:
Check the North Carolina State Board of Elections website for the final certified precinct-level data if you want to see exactly how your specific neighborhood voted. It’s also worth following the first 100 days of the Stein administration to see if he can actually get those teacher pay raises through a divided General Assembly.