A Republican is first candidate with statewide TV ad in 2024 NC governor’s race
The newest candidate in the race for North Carolina governor in 2024 is first out of the gate with a statewide television advertisement Tuesday.
It’s not from the frontrunner of either race, but from Republican Bill Graham, a previously unsuccessful candidate for governor.
Graham entered the primary race earlier this month with $5 million of his own money and plans to spend millions of dollars on televised ads through the end of the year. The first ad airs starting Tuesday in all of the state’s markets, on a range of stations from local to sports to cable news. The initial ad buy is $3.5 million, according to his campaign.
In the 30-second ad, Graham, a Salisbury attorney, says “our streets aren’t safe because far-left politicians coddle criminals.”
Graham does not mention his fellow Republican primary opponents: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, state Treasurer Dale Folwell, former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, former state Sen. Andy Wells and retired health care executive Jesse Thomas.
In the Democratic primary, Attorney General Josh Stein is the frontrunner vs. recently retired N.C. Supreme Court Justice Mike Morgan. As attorney general, Stein is the state’s top law enforcement officer.
Graham says that if he’s elected governor, he’ll put violent criminals “in jail, or in the ground.” Graham supports the death penalty for drug dealers and human traffickers.
According to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, North Carolina has 140 people on death row now, and its method of execution is injection. But there have been no executions since 2006 while court fights play out.
Only the governor can grant clemency.
If elected, Graham says he’ll start a gang prevention task force and wants longer sentences for violent crime.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly repealed the state law requirement for a pistol purchase permit earlier this year, the first veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper that Republicans overturned since gaining seats in the 2022 elections.
Stein said at the time that repealing the law “has made our communities less safe. Now, dangerous people — like violent criminals and domestic abusers — will be able to more easily get their hands on guns.”
According to the State Bureau of Investigation’s latest annual report, crime in North Carolina decreased by 1.4% in 2022 compared to 2021, with the rate of violent crime decreasing by 3.9% in the same time period.
In a campaign email after Graham announced his run, Stein said that the state’s “Republican politicians keep moving further right with even more extreme ideas every day. They support banning abortion, restricting access to the ballot box, attacking trusted institutions of our democracy, defunding public education, and protecting guns rather than kids.”
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