North Carolina treasurer running for governor in 2024
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell announced Saturday he will run for governor in 2024, a bid that will likely require him besting Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson to earn the Republican nomination.
While Republicans have controlled the Legislature since 2011 and won a majority on the state Supreme Court last November, they have struggled to enter the Executive Mansion. The GOP has won just one gubernatorial general election since 1992, and winner Pat McCrory served for just four years.
Folwell, a former legislator, school board member and state unemployment office chief who was elected treasurer in 2016, said he would bring competence to operating government in a fiscally sound manner and look out for working people if elected. “The root word of ‘governor’ is to govern, and what that means is to be the CEO of the biggest business in the state,” Folwell said. “And based on my track record of saving lives, minds and money, I’m uniquely qualified to do that.”
The state constitution prevents Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper from seeking a third consecutive term.
Folwell said in September that he was strongly considering a run after encouragement from several Republicans. He revealed his plans first at Saturday’s Republican Party convention for Forsyth County, where he lives.
Robinson, who was elected the state’s first Black lieutenant governor in 2020, released an autobiography last year and is a popular speaker at conservative churches and events. He hasn’t made an announcement, but has said he’s fairly certain he will run for governor.
Attorney General Josh Stein announced his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in January, taking direct aim at Robinson for speeches in which critics say he disparaged LGBTQ+ people, women and abortion rights. Last week, Robinson criticized churches that fly a “rainbow flag.”
Robinson said he wasn’t attacking the LGBTQ+ community — but rather it was a judgment on reading materials in the public schools. He also said he can separate his religious views from his governmental responsibilities. But some Republicans are worried about whether he can win the general election in the closely divided state.
Folwell, 64, ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2012 before winning his current statewide job four years later.