Ex-presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg explains why he’s making an endorsement in NC
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein received a national endorsement for his 2020 re-election campaign Thursday from former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
Buttigieg is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and was one of the top contenders in the Democratic Party’s crowded 2020 presidential primary.
In a phone interview Thursday with The News & Observer, Buttigieg said he particularly likes how Stein has used his role as North Carolina’s top lawyer to lead national opioid-related lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies.
Stein has involved North Carolina in several opioid lawsuits, including a high-profile fight with Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin. Stein also worked last year with his counterparts in Tennessee, Texas and Pennsylvania to reach a $48 billion settlement with a group of drug and health care companies.
In the 2020 elections, Buttigieg said, Democrats have “really a once-in-a-generation” opportunity in states including North Carolina to win over voters who used to be solidly Republican but now are questioning their support of the modern-day GOP because of Republican President Donald Trump. Buttigieg specifically mentioned pro-military voters.
“More than ever before I see a lot of opportunities to reach out and connect with voters on the other side ... without watering down our values at all,” Buttigeig said. “That’s one of the reasons I’m excited about Josh’s approach.”
Stein isn’t the first North Carolina politician endorsed during the 2020 elections by Buttigieg, who said he might still get involved in a few other races. In addition to his national name recognition, he also brings a database of 800,000 people who donated to his presidential campaign.
“We’re really going deep on North Carolina because I think it’s such an important state,” he said.
Buttigieg positioned himself as a moderate in the presidential primary, similar to the party’s eventual nominee Joe Biden, which earned him scorn from some on the party’s left wing. But the ability to appeal to moderates and independent voters can be key in a swing state like North Carolina — for either party.
Stein, for instance, won in 2016 as a Democrat in the same election when voters also supported Trump for President. “It’s about building the broadest coalition,” Buttigieg told The News & Observer.
Stein won in 2016 by less than 1% of the vote — a narrow victory he accomplished by getting over 100,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton did against Trump.
Stein’s critics, however, say he’s tied to the far-left side of the Democratic Party.
In numerous social media posts in recent weeks, both the NC Republican Party and Stein’s GOP opponent, Jim O’Neill, have accused Stein of an anti-police sentiment.
Stein’s “liberal allies across the country and all over North Carolina are working to defund the police,” the NC GOP wrote in one recent tweet.
On Wednesday, O’Neill was endorsed by the N.C. Police Benevolent Association, the state’s biggest police union. As the current district attorney in Forsyth County, home to Winston-Salem, O’Neill said he has “stood with law enforcement officers, the community, and crime victims as we have pursued justice for those that don’t have a voice.”
The same day, he tweeted that 13% of police in Asheville have quit their jobs since June.
“This is what happens when you defund the police & why I’m strongly opposed to it,” O’Neill wrote. “Why won’t (Stein) tell us where he stands?”
In an interview Thursday with The News & Observer, Stein said he opposes defunding police, but does support using social workers, instead of police, to respond to most emergency calls dealing with substance abuse or mental health issues. That would give police more time to focus on stopping or solving violent crimes, Stein said.
He also said that North Carolina cities and counties should pay police more, but also have stricter standards for punishing misconduct and excessive force.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 4:05 PM.
