The 2020 North Carolina election for Attorney General was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the Attorney General of North Carolina, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
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| Turnout | 75.35%  6.37 pp | ||||||||||||||||
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   Stein: 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% 80–90% >90% O'Neill: 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% 80–90% >90% Tie: 50% | |||||||||||||||||
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Party primary elections were held on March 3, 2020.
Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, first elected in 2016, ran for re-election against Republican Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O'Neill.[1] With a narrow margin separating Stein and O'Neill (0.26%), the Associated Press was finally able to call Stein the winner on November 17, 2020, (two weeks after Election Day).[2] This also made this attorney general race the closest of the 2020 election cycle.
Democratic primary
editCandidates
editNominee
edit- Josh Stein, incumbent attorney general[3]
Republican primary
editCandidates
editNominee
edit- Jim O'Neill, Forsyth County district attorney and candidate for North Carolina Attorney General in 2016[4]
Eliminated in primary
edit- Sam Hayes, general counsel for the North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell[5]
- Christine Mumma, executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence[6]
Results
edit
O'Neill
- 30–40%
- 40–50%
- 50–60%
- 60–70%
- 70–80%
Hayes
- 30–40%
- 40–50%
- 50–60%
Mumma
- 30–40%
- 40–50%
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Jim O'Neill | 338,567 | 46.55% | |
| Republican | Sam Hayes | 226,453 | 31.14% | |
| Republican | Christine Mumma | 162,301 | 22.31% | |
| Total votes | 727,321 | 100.00% | ||
General election
editPredictions
edit| Source | Ranking | As of |
|---|---|---|
| The Cook Political Report[8] | Lean D | June 25, 2020 |
Polling
editGraphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
| Poll source | Date(s) administered |
Sample size |
Margin of error |
Josh Stein (D) |
Jim O'Neill (R) |
Other | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Carolina University | October 27–28, 2020 | 1,103 (LV) | ± 3.4% | 49% | 42% | 3%[a] | 6% |
| Meeting Street Insights (R) Archived 2020-10-31 at the Wayback Machine | October 24–27, 2020 | 600 (LV) | ± 4% | 49% | 44% | – | 4% |
| East Carolina University | October 15–18, 2020 | 1,155 (LV) | ± 3.4% | 49% | 44% | 2%[b] | 5% |
| East Carolina University | October 2–4, 2020 | 1,232 (LV) | ± 3.2% | 43% | 46% | 2%[c] | 9% |
| Cardinal Point Analytics (R) | July 22–24, 2020 | 735 (LV) | ± 3.6% | 40% | 45% | – | 15% |
| Cardinal Point Analytics (R) | July 13–15, 2020 | 547 (LV) | ± 4.2% | 43% | 43% | – | 14% |
Results
edit| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Josh Stein (incumbent) | 2,713,400 | 50.13% | −0.14% | |
| Republican | Jim O'Neill | 2,699,778 | 49.87% | +0.14% | |
| Total votes | 5,413,178 | 100.00% | N/A | ||
| Democratic hold | |||||
By congressional district
editDespite losing the state, O'Neill won 8 of 13 congressional districts.[10]
| District | Stein | O'Neill | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 56% | 44% | G. K. Butterfield |
| 2nd | 65% | 35% | George Holding |
| Deborah K. Ross | |||
| 3rd | 39% | 61% | Greg Murphy |
| 4th | 67% | 33% | David Price |
| 5th | 34% | 66% | Virginia Foxx |
| 6th | 62% | 38% | Mark Walker |
| Kathy Manning | |||
| 7th | 43% | 57% | David Rouzer |
| 8th | 48% | 52% | Richard Hudson |
| 9th | 46% | 54% | Dan Bishop |
| 10th | 33% | 67% | Patrick McHenry |
| 11th | 45% | 55% | Madison Cawthorn |
| 12th | 70% | 30% | Alma Adams |
| 13th | 34% | 66% | Ted Budd |
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ Friedman, Corey (November 9, 2016). "Josh Stein bests Buck Newton in attorney general race". The Wilson Times. Archived from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
- ^ "Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein Wins Reelection". WUNC. November 18, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
- ^ Bonner, Lynn; Thompson, Elizabeth (March 10, 2019). "Who's running in North Carolina's 2020 statewide races?". The News & Observer. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
- ^ Hewlett, Michael (February 8, 2019). "Forsyth DA Jim O'Neill announces run for N.C. attorney general. He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2016". Winston-Salem Journal.
- ^ Fain, Travis (December 20, 2019). "Filing flurry fills NC ballots". WRAL. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
- ^ Specht, Paul (December 20, 2019). "NC Attorney General Stein gets challenge from innocence group leader". WRAL. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
- ^ "NC SBE Contest Results". er.ncsbe.gov. North Carolina Board of Elections. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
- ^ "An Updated Look at Handicapping the 2020 Attorney General Elections". The Cook Political Report. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ "State Composite Abstract Report - Contest.pdf" (PDF). North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
- ^ "DRA 2020". Daves Redistricting. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
External links
edit- Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association, "North Carolina", Voting & Elections Toolkits
- "North Carolina: Election Tools, Deadlines, Dates, Rules, and Links", Vote.org, Oakland, CA
- "League of Women Voters of North Carolina". (State affiliate of the U.S. League of Women Voters)
- North Carolina at Ballotpedia
- Official campaign websites