As governor's race heats up, Stein leads Robinson in fundraising
Josh Stein’s campaign for North Carolina governor raised nearly $17 million as of the end of 2023, dwarfing Republican front-runner Mark Robinson, new campaign finance filings show.
Stein has so far raised more money than all nine other candidates for governor combined.
Robinson raised just under $10 million by the end of last year — a strong showing compared to previous gubernatorial campaigns, yet still millions of dollars behind Stein.
Stein, a Democrat who has served as North Carolina’s attorney general for the past seven years, has been endorsed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to replace him. Cooper is term-limited and can’t run for a third straight term.
Stein’s haul is nearly triple what Cooper reported at the same stage of his first run for governor in 2016.
Stein and Robinson haven’t just been raising large amounts of money. Each has spent millions of dollars getting their campaigns up and running. As of Jan. 1, Stein’s campaign had $11.5 million left in the bank, compared to $4.3 million for Robinson.
While the two men are considered the favorites to win their party’s nomination in the March primary election to face off in November, neither result is guaranteed. Each face multiple opponents.
Stein's main opponent in the Democratic primary is former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Morgan. Morgan was personally endorsed by then-president Barack Obama when he won his seat on the Supreme Court in 2016, but the latest campaign finance numbers show he hasn't raised much in his 2024 run for governor: $120,000 total, with just $32,000 left in the bank at the start of January.
Robinson’s GOP primary opponents: Robinson faces two GOP opponents in the primary, lawyer and businessman Bill Graham and State Treasurer Dale Folwell.
Other public records show Graham appears to be the only candidate for governor yet to run any television ads — often an expensive undertaking. He's almost entirely self-funding his campaign, records show. He reported raising $2.9 million, including $2.8 million that he personally loaned the campaign as of the end of last year. When he announced his run for governor, Graham pledged to spend at least $5 million of his own money on the campaign.
State Treasurer Dale Folwell, another Republican running for governor, raised $1.3 million through the end of last year, mostly through a $1 million personal loan to his campaign. While Folwell lags Robinson and Graham in fundraising, his filings show he has some influential GOP backers.
Former Gov. Jim Martin and former U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger contributed to Folwell’s campaign. So did family members of several more current or former members of Congress, including Ed Broyhill, who also serves as North Carolina’s national committeeman on the Republican National Committee.
Over a dozen former state lawmakers are also backing Folwell. He served as the No. 2 Republican in the state House, under then-House Speaker Thom Tillis, after the GOP seized control in the 2010 Tea Party wave.
Tillis is now the senior U.S. senator for North Carolina. His name doesn’t appear in Folwell’s campaign finance report. Tillis has endorsed Graham for governor.
Winning the grassroots battle: Another way some campaigns measure their relative strength is by the number of individuals who donated. That can indicate the level of grassroots support their campaigns have among regular people, rather than party insiders, business leaders or other more typical types of donors.
Stein again led the way there. His campaign tallied more than 40,000 individual donations. Robinson reported nearly 32,000 individual donations. Morgan reported 480, Folwell reported 200 and Graham reported 91.
The other candidates have all either not yet filed their reports, or they reported few to no donors.
Libertarians struggle to fundraise: In the two-person Libertarian primary for governor, neither candidate appears to have raised much money.
Shannon Bray reported $4,400, entirely from himself. Mike Ross reported slightly more than $3,000, including $2,500 from himself.
Other Democrats not finding donors: While Stein and Morgan are by far the most experienced political candidates seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2024, they’re not alone in the race.
Campaign finance filings, however, show the other three Democrats in the race have struggled to resonate with supporters. The three of them combined to bring in zero outside donations.
Marcus Williams' campaign raised $3,000, all of it from himself, and spent all of it. Gary Foxx, the former police chief of Princeville, kicked off January with $25 left in his campaign account. He reported raising just over $2,000, all of it from himself. A fifth Democrat in the race, Chrelle Booker, reported $0 raised or spent.
