Democrats avoid a runoff in NC, setting up history-making election for Lt. Governor
A week after coming in second place in North Carolina’s Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, state Sen. Terry Van Duyn of Asheville has decided not to request a runoff election, making Rep. Yvonne Lewis Holley of Raleigh her party’s nominee in the general election this fall.
“Senator Terry Van Duyn is a great Democratic leader in the Senate. We can always count on her to support Medicaid expansion, protect women’s rights, and invest in public education,” Holley said in an emailed statement. “Senator Van Duyn is a colleague and a friend, and I appreciate the opportunity to stand with her in the General Assembly,” Holley said.
The Smoky Mountain News first reported that Van Duyn wouldn’t request a runoff. She confirmed it in a text to The News & Observer and sent the following statement:
“I want to congratulate Representative Holley for winning this Democratic Primary Election. We all ran races based upon our shared value of moving North Carolina in a better direction. I look forward to doing everything I can to elect Democrats up and down the ticket in 2020 and that includes supporting Representative Holley as our next Lieutenant Governor,” Van Duyn said in the statement.
Van Duyn told the Smoky Mountain News that a poll conducted by her campaign “indicated that I’d have to raise significant money, and to take more money out of my community didn’t make sense to me.”
Both Holley and Mark Robinson, the Republican lieutenant governor nominee, are African American. That means the next lieutenant governor of North Carolina will almost certainly be African American — a first for the state.
Robinson, a Greensboro gun rights activist, won the nine-way Republican primary outright with 32% of votes.
There won’t be a statewide primary for any other races, as all other winning candidates met the threshold of more than 30% of votes to win outright.
Holley received 26% of votes in the March 3 primary election, with Van Duyn coming in second with 20%. Each of the other four candidates received 19% or less.
Holley grew up in Raleigh and went to Wake County Public Schools, then Howard University. She was among the first African American students to desegregate Enloe High School. Holley spent 25 years as a state employee.
During the primary campaign, Holley told The N&O that she had grassroots support and said, “I’m not really running to be something, I’m running to do something.”
“Some of it was I’ve been in the General Assembly and fighting for things in the General Assembly, and given the Republican dominated [majority] we been able to get limited things through,” she said. Holley’s priorities include addressing food deserts and housing affordability.
She has the endorsements of several state lawmakers and Triangle elected officials, including Rep. Gale Adcock, Rep. Becky Carney, Rep. Kelly Alexander, Rep. Cecil Brockman, Durham City Council member Mark-Anthony Middleton and Durham County Commissioners Brenda Howerton and James Hill, among others.
Runoffs, or second primaries, are called only if the second place vote-getter requests one. Van Duyn took a week to decide, meeting with supporters and making calls from home in Asheville. Van Duyn had told The N&O on Friday that she would make her decision on Tuesday because she was still figuring out what’s the best course to make sure the lieutenant governor’s office is “blue.”
Van Duyn raised the most money, with $489,000 in individual contributions and another $5,900 from PACs including Lillian’s List and the Sierra Club. Holley raised about $38,000, and her individual donors included several other Democratic House members, including House Minority Leader Darren Jackson.
North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Wayne Goodwin said in an emailed statement that the state party is grateful to all candidates.
“Representative Holley has been a fierce advocate for our public schools and has a proven record of working across the aisle to get things done. We look forward to adding yet another incredibly qualified candidate to our diverse slate of candidates and to winning big this November,” Goodwin said in the statement.
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 March 10, 2020 at 7:37 PM.
.jpg)