Josh Stein’s Challenge With Black Voters 

The black-and-white ad that launched Mike Morgan’s campaign for governor last fall generated lots of buzz. 

Produced over two weeks for $60,000, the ad begins with footage of an actor portraying Morgan as a child, in his Sunday best and a bowtie, entering a schoolhouse in New Bern, where he grew up. Young Mike takes a deep breath and starts a long walk down the hallway, his eyes darting back and forth as clean-cut white students point and gawk. The R&B classic “My Need” plays in the background.

I know you don’t love me no more … 

Titled “Hard Steps,” the ad represents Morgan’s experience as the first Black student at his newly desegregated elementary school in 1964. “I learned how to understand the ignorance of people and to assimilate in a way that didn’t make me hate them,” he says. 

Morgan, who was elected to the N.C. Supreme Court in 2016, has a powerful story to tell. But while his launch ad garnered more than 400,000 views—and drew praise for being “unusually artistic” and “beautiful”—Morgan has failed to seriously threaten the Democratic frontrunner, Attorney General Josh Stein. 

At the end of 2023, Morgan had raised just $119,000 to Stein’s $17 million, according to N.C. State Board of Elections filings. A recent poll from Meredith College showed Stein 27 points ahead of Morgan; polling at 4 percent, Morgan was in third place, behind Chrelle Booker, a Tyron Town Council member who is also Black. (Two other Black candidates, Marcus Williams and Gary Foxx, are running as well.) 

Stein has been endorsed by Gov. Roy Cooper and much of the party’s establishment. Even before Stein announced his campaign in January 2023, many insiders viewed his primary victory as a fait accompli. Morgan’s decision to challenge him instead of seeking another term on the state Supreme Court seemed quixotic.

But Morgan’s allies say this institutionalism is precisely the problem. 

“There’s always an assumption of who’s supposed to be in office based on what they think rather than what the people of North Carolina think,” said Collette Alston, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party’s African American Caucus, which endorsed Morgan. 

This year, party elites have rallied not just behind Stein but also Jeff Jackson, Rachel Hunt, and Allison Riggs in their bids for attorney general, lieutenant governor, and Supreme Court justice, respectively. All are white and have Black primary opponents. The likely outcome is that the top of the state ticket for Democrats will be all white in November, while state Republicans will be led by Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who wants to become the state’s first Black governor. (Several other Black Democrats are seeking statewide office, including Jessica Holmes, who was recently appointed state auditor and is running for that office, and Mo Green, who is seeking election as state schools superintendent.)

For a party that heavily relies on Black votes and campaigns as a champion of civil rights, these are not ideal optics. Morgan argues that the lack of representation at the top of the ticket could hurt Democrats in November.

“From what we understand in my campaign, some Black people will be enamored by the opportunity to vote for someone Black to be governor,” Morgan told The Assembly. 

No one thinks Robinson will win a majority of Black voters. But in a razor-close election—Stein won the AG race by fewer than 14,000 votes in 2020—even a small shift could prove decisive. 

There’s another danger for Democrats, too. Black voters who believe the Democratic Party has taken them for granted—or who are disillusioned with President Joe Biden’s refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza—might not show up in force in November. Indeed, polls show that Black voters feel more disconnected from the Democratic Party than at any point since the civil rights era. 

A new survey by the progressive organization Carolina Forward found a dead heat between Stein and Robinson. Robinson claimed 11 percent of likely Black voters in that poll—and 26 percent more said they were undecided or would not vote. Those voters could swing the election.  

If Stein secures his party’s nomination on March 5, his campaign to win over its most loyal voters will have only just begun. 

Nail-Biters 

Stein, 57, grew up in the civil rights movement. His father co-founded the first integrated law firm in the Southeast in 1969 and has argued several civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. His sister was previously the public information director at a high-profile Durham nonprofit that opposes the death penalty. 

A Chapel Hill native, two-time Ivy League graduate, and three-term state senator from Wake County, Stein became the first Jewish person elected to North Carolina’s Council of State in 2016, when he defeated Republican Buck Newton to become attorney general. 

But that year’s primary revealed chinks in Stein’s political armor. Despite a 40-to-1 fundraising advantage, Stein struggled against perennial candidate Marcus Williams, who is Black, winning 53-47. (Williams is running for governor this year.) Stein was particularly weak with Black voters, winning just 20 percent of majority-Black precincts, according to state data.

Since then, North Carolina’s urban areas—largely Democratic strongholds—have boomed, but that hasn’t translated into Democratic power. Rural areas—including parts of eastern North Carolina that have traditionally elected Black Democrats—have grown increasingly conservative, and the state now has more unaffiliated voters than Republicans or Democrats. 

Republicans have claimed legislative supermajorities, most Council of State seats, and a majority of the N.C. Supreme Court. The governor’s veto is the only roadblock to tighter abortion restrictions and other conservative priorities—and after Republicans redrew legislative districts to cement their hold on the General Assembly last year, Democratic hand-wringing over keeping the Executive Mansion intensified.

Stein has twice been elected when former President Donald Trump won the state. But both of his victories were nail-biters. In 2020, he ran several points behind Cooper, who cruised to reelection; that year, Stein garnered 87,000 fewer votes than Robinson, who became the state’s first Black lieutenant governor in his first bid for office.

Insiders in both parties expect this year’s gubernatorial contest to be close, and Stein’s campaign knows it can’t afford to lose voters. In 2022, Cheri Beasley narrowly lost her campaign for U.S. Senate—and Democrats were swept in statewide judicial races—in part because Black turnout collapsed to an abysmal 42 percent. 

“It’s not just the African American demographic, it’s every demographic,” said Democratic consultant Morgan Jackson, Stein’s campaign adviser. “Every smart campaign is going to communicate heavily, not just to voters that are swing voters, but voters that are believed to be your base, that are traditional Democratic voters.”

Campaign spokesperson Kate Frauenfelder said Stein “knows every vote is earned, so he is meeting with students and small business owners, farmers, and faith leaders all across the state to hear their concerns.” 

But Alston, who leads the state party’s African American caucus, said she only remembers Stein showing up “whenever it was time for us to vote for him. There was no other time that there was a visit or any other kind of correspondence or anything. We haven’t seen Josh Stein out in public, around North Carolina, nowhere near as much as we’ve seen Mr. Morgan.” 

The Playbook 

Stein began his campaign last year with his sights set on Mark Robinson. His three-minute debut ad noted his father’s civil rights background—“I learned early on that some things are worth fighting for”—but pivoted quickly to his likely opponent, whom Stein lumped in with politicians who “spark division, ignite hate, and fan the flames of bigotry.”

“I’m running for governor because I believe in a very different North Carolina,” Stein says, presenting himself as a pragmatic moderate in the mold of Cooper, who remains one of the state’s most popular politicians. 

Democrats’ playbook for this year’s election isn’t a secret: Stein’s campaign plans to attack Robinson over his incendiary comments about women, Jews, and LGBTQ people and hype his conspiratorial inclinations and unflinching opposition to abortion rights. The goal is to convince suburban swing voters—even those who vote for Trump—that Robinson is too extreme. 

But this strategy has risks. Some Democrats fear that Robinson’s focus on social issues and views about women will appeal to churchgoing, culturally conservative Black voters, particularly older men. 

“Within our culture, especially in the South, we’re gonna go to hell for certain things, because of our religious thoughts,” Alston said. “Mark Robinson can placate that type of voter. Black men can feel more empowered. And plus—he’s Black. And, you know, that’s what I’m afraid of.” 

The Rev. Paul Anderson, who pastors the predominantly Black Fountain of Raleigh Fellowship in North Raleigh, pointed out that Robinson has preached in Black churches throughout the state as lieutenant governor. In the culturally conservative Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, Robinson called the “transgender movement” the “spirit of the antichrist” and “demonic” in 2021; more recently, he’s toured Black churches in southeastern North Carolina. 

Anderson, who previously ran for Raleigh City Council and has been active in Democratic politics, said it’s unclear how receptive an audience Robinson will find among Black churchgoers. 

“Hopefully, they will see through the smoke,” he said.

Jackson, Stein’s campaign consultant, downplays these concerns, as do other Stein supporters. They believe that every Black voter Robinson peels off will be offset by suburbanites turned off by Robinson’s rhetoric. (Quietly, some Democrats also believe—or maybe hope—at least a few Republicans won’t vote for a Black candidate no matter how conservative he is.)

State Sen. Natalie Murdock, a Black Democrat from Durham, says that the more Black voters get to know Stein, the more they’ll like him. In Durham, she said, “people know that he comes from a family that has always believed in equity and equality for Black people, and he’s taken it to the next level with being attorney general.”

But his record as the state’s top lawyer hasn’t been universally lauded. 

Stein’s campaign touts his efforts to “protect families” from “powerful special interests,” citing $56 billion in settlements he helped negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over their role in the opioid crisis; North Carolina will get $1.5 billion. He also pitches his work on a $1.1 billion settlement from Duke Energy to pay for coal ash cleanup, and a $40 million settlement with JUUL, the e-cigarette maker, as punishment for targeting children. 

Stein takes credit for reducing the state’s rape kit backlog and defending abortion rights and public school funding in court, sometimes drawing rebukes from Republican legislators who said he refused to defend state laws he doesn’t like. 

He also points out that, after George Floyd’s murder sparked protests, he co-chaired a task force on racial equity in the justice system. But the task force’s recommendations didn’t lead to meaningful reforms, says Dawn Blagrove, director of the civil rights group Emancipate NC. 

“He can run on his rhetoric, but he cannot run on his record,” Blagrove said. “[The task force] put forth these recommendations that are very progressive and forward thinking and designed with an eye toward equity and fairness. Yet the criminal division of the attorney general’s office, under his leadership, has consistently done everything in its power to uphold the racist status quo that exists within our criminal justice system.”

Blagrove points to attempts by Stein’s office to dismiss Racial Justice Act claims made by death-row inmate Hasson Jamaal Bacote, who was convicted of murder in Johnston County in 2009 and is seeking to have his death sentence reduced to life in prison. 

In court filings, the attorney general’s office cited a recent ruling by the N.C. Supreme Court’s Republican majority that makes it all but impossible for inmates to prove racial bias in jury selection. 

On Facebook earlier this month, Morgan called it “shameful” that Stein’s office tried to prevent Bacote from getting “his day in court” before the primary. “Stein doesn’t want Black voters to know his argument in this high-profile case,” Morgan wrote, “which is that the defendant did not experience racial discrimination.”

Blagrove said that if Black voters don’t turn out in November, it won’t necessarily be because the Democratic slate is all-white. “The bigger issue is that they got shit candidates,” she said. 

Robinson is “invigorating his base,” Blagrove added. “And he is consistent. He’s not trying to play both sides of the aisle. Stein is not that. Stein says one thing and does something completely different.” 

Blagrove said she’ll vote for Stein if he’s the Democratic nominee. But “there is nothing about his tenure as AG that will make me, as a social justice advocate, excited about seeing him move to the governor’s mansion.”

Loosening Attachment

Under different circumstances, Joretha Johnson might vote for a Republican candidate for governor. 

“I’m not crazy about Roy Cooper,” she said, standing in the foyer of Fountain of Raleigh Fellowship after a Sunday morning service in February. “The Democratic Party—I don’t align with liberal policies. I would vote for a Republican candidate if I knew that person would not vote for Trump.” 

But to Johnson, Trump’s GOP stands for “white supremacy.” Mark Robinson doesn’t change that. 

Not that the alternative is that much better: “Democrats try to placate us.” 

Johnson, who is in her early 60s, is part of the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituency—Black women. But she cautioned that Black voters aren’t ideologically monolithic, and she said the party shouldn’t count on their support. 

Too many feel disenfranchised or ignored. And the attachment older Black voters feel toward the Democratic Party is not shared by their grandchildren, many of whom consider themselves independent. 

“You have a lot of people who are unaffiliated,” added Mary Gentry, another church member. “Some people feel like they don’t know what they’re going to do. They’re not sure because they feel people aren’t seeing them.”

Comments like these are central to Morgan’s campaign pitch. Many Black voters “feel as though they’ve been taken for granted” by Democrats, Morgan said. And Republicans appear likely to show “the boldness that the Democratic Party would not show” by putting a Black man atop their slate.

“I believe there is going to be a great deal of consternation and confusion among Black voters,” he said. 

Corrections: This article incorrectly said North Carolina Democrats’ statewide ticket was likely to be all white and that Mark Robinson was the first Black member of the Council of State. It also incorrectly said Josh Stein was the first Jewish person elected to statewide office in North Carolina. It has been corrected.

Lucille Sherman is a reporter for Axios Raleigh, where she primarily covers state politics.

Jeffrey Billman reports on politics and the law for The Assembly. Email him at jeffrey@theassemblync.com.

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