New Republican candidate for North Carolina governor shakes up the 2024 field
The Republican candidate field for governor in 2024 is getting crowded. A new GOP candidate declared his candidacy on Wednesday, with the potential to change the race that has Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson as the frontrunner.
Bill Graham, a Salisbury attorney and previous candidate for governor, is running again and launching with $5 million and a television ad campaign.
Graham announced his campaign Wednesday morning, saying that if he becomes the next governor, he will cut taxes, put people back to work, “go after violent criminals including the death penalty for human traffickers and drug dealers” and “require public schools to give parents a say in their kids’ education.”
Graham, who is lending himself $5 million to launch his run, will face off in the Republican gubernatorial primary against Robinson, State Treasurer Dale Folwell, former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, former state Sen. Andy Wells and retired health care executive Jesse Thomas.
On the Democratic side, only Attorney General Josh Stein was in the field until September, when retired N.C. Supreme Court Justice Mike Morgan also entered the primary race. Stein has the endorsement of Gov. Roy Cooper, who is finishing out his second term. Governors can only run for two consecutive terms in North Carolina.
“I’m running to win a conservative future for North Carolina,” Graham said in a statement to The News & Observer. “We need a conservative governor who shows up for work and will rescue this state from liberals like Roy Cooper and Josh Stein. I’m the only Republican who will do that.”
Cooper’s first win, in 2016, was against former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. McCrory was governor for one term, from 2013 to 2017, but also ran in 2008, when he was defeated by former Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue. In that 2008 election, Graham ran in the primary and lost to McCrory.
“Only four of the last thirty years have been led by a Republican governor in North Carolina; we keep losing to the liberals,” Graham said.
“If we want to change that, we need a nominee who will have the resources, discipline, and character needed to defeat the far-left Josh Stein in November. I am that candidate, and my campaign will prove it,” he said.
Graham led a campaign to cap the gas tax before his first run for governor. In a 2007 interview with the Times-News, Graham said he was making his first run for elected office in part because of what he saw as too-high tax rates.
He is a businessman and partner in the Wallace & Graham law firm in Salisbury. Graham is also a former staffer for the late Republican Sen. Jesse Helms and serves on the boards of Catawba College and the Jesse Helms Center.
His television ads will begin running statewide Oct. 26, according to his campaign.
The primary election is March 5.
This story was originally published October 18, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the name of Graham’s law firm. It is Wallace & Graham.
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