NC Governor
(Democratic Ballot Only)
NOTE: You may vote for one. Candidates are presented below in the order they appear on your ballot.
Reason for my Endorsement: Most folks I know are supporting Josh Stein for Governor, and he would indeed make a fine one. And I have really struggled with this endorsement. Stein has the most money in bank to take on a tough race for governor, he has the most endorsements, and he has a solid progressive record (for the most part).
But I confess to a soft spot for underdogs, especially when they are extremely and equally well qualified, have been discounted from the day they were born but never lose hope or faith, are shining examples of the best of our public schools, and who have struggled to make lives better for countess similar underdogs in our state.
I find Morgan’s story compelling, inspirational, and more true to the average life and struggle of the many North Carolinians trying to pull themselves and their families up, who find themselves with similar life stories and hope for the future, and who aspire to see themselves in Morgan’s mirror.
My head tells me to go with Stein. My heart tells me to go with Morgan and his Hard Steps. Either candidate will make a fine Governor.
Gary Fox:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555060221114
https://www.garywfoxxforncgovernor.com/
Fox is the son of a sharecropper and grew up in Sanford. His background includes experience in law enforcement and Chief of Police in Sanford. His platform generally emphasizes concerns regarding “safety and security, education and opportunity, family values and community, and moral compass and fiscal responsibility.”
Fox’s focus for service as Governor would be strong support for public schools, and public school safety; “commonsense gun control”; Medicaid expansion; support for protecting the state’s natural resources; and equality for all “regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.”
Fox set up his Facebook page the day after Christmas. It’s clunky but appealing, and he’s keeping it active with frequent posts presenting his platform.
Michael R. (Mike) Morgan
https://www.facebook.com/morganforgovernor
Morgan for Governor on Twitter
Morgan has a Bachelor of Arts in both History and Sociology from Duke University. He went on to obtain his law degree, with honors, from North Carolina Central University School of Law, where he served as the student body president during his final year of law school. Subsequently he served on the legal staff of the North Carolina Department of Justice for ten years rising steadily to be an Assistant Attorney General.
In 1989, Morgan was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge with the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings. While in this capacity, he administered the oath of office to his father, the first and only African-American to serve as mayor of the City of New Bern. This historic event was featured nationally in an article titled “Swearing in His Dad” in the February 19, 1990 issue of Jet Magazine.
Morgan was appointed to a Wake County District judgeship in 1994, elected in his own right in 1996 and then reelected in 2000. He was then elected to the Superior Court bench in 2004 (8-year term) and reelected in 2012. In 2016, he was Associate Justice of the NC Supreme Court.
Before stepping down from the Court this year, Morgan was part of the rulings in three important cases. He wrote to defend a complicated death penalty verdict, dissented in a castle doctrine case, and voted with his Republican colleagues to defeat environmentalists’ challenge of a mining quarry’s state permit. After reviewing and trying to understand the majority opinions on these cases, the latter is the most troubling to me.
Morgan’s key platform issues in support of his bid for Governor are support for public schools, living wages and equal pay, affordable healthcare, women’s rights, lgbtq+ rights, addressing climate change, defending democracy, and criminal justice reform. He is a good guy with an impressive life story.
Morgan surprised, shocked really, everyone when he announced he would not run for re-election as Associate Justice of the NC Supreme Court but would rather challenge Josh Stein in the primary for governor late in the game. It’s hard to figure the thinking that went into that decision, but there’s this: “I am committed to challenging the status quo that allows a few at the top to choose the winners and losers among us…. I am running on a platform that calls for a change to the system that allows the working people, children, and families of North Carolina to be ignored and taken for granted.”
I think I get it. Conventional wisdom has long been that Stein would be Cooper’s heir apparent, and Morgan questioned senior Democrats who put their weight behind Stein before any other opponents joined the race. “It’s unusual and even disheartening that there would be such an early backing of anyone, because the field has yet to be filled, in terms of those that would potentially run.”
Morgan is an accomplished, impressive jurist. The bottomline is he can’t compete financially, and is also seriously out-gunned in this contest. But his life story, his hope, his vision, his commitment to the underdog, and his willingness to confront head on the status quo makes him a very appealing candidate to me.
Josh Stein
https://www.facebook.com/JoshSteinNC
Stein is a graduate of Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Dartmouth College. He lives in Raleigh and is married with three children and is a strong proponent of public schools.
Stein is a standup guy and has been an extremely effective Attorney General. As Attorney General, among other things, Stein…
*helped finalize a settlement with the opioid manufacturer Mallinckrodt in which the company agreed to pay $1.6 billion for its role in the epidemic.
*filed a brief with the United States Supreme Court arguing in favor of the Affordable Care Act.
*became the first attorney general in the country to sue e-cigarette manufacturer JUUL for unlawful marketing to minors.
*sought and received additional funding to test North Carolina’s backlog of untested sexual assault kits.
*negotiated eight Anti-Robocall Principles with a bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general and 12 companies to protect phone users from illegal robocalls.
*launched Operation Silver Shield, an effort to protect older North Carolinians from fraud and scams.
*refused to appeal the findings of a lower court that a North Carolina state law that disenfranchised anyone convicted of a felony was unconstitutional.
*joined Gov. Roy Cooper in filing a brief supporting the plaintiffs in Pierce v. NCSBOE which alleges unconstitutional racial discrimination in the gerrymandering of some Eastern NC Senate districts late in 2023.
In fact, after the landmark and disastrous U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs ruling in 2022 that repealed the federal right to abortion, Republican leaders urged Stein to reinstate the state’s existing 20-week ban. He denied the request, writing in a statement that the Department of Justice would not “take action that would restrict women’s ability to make their own reproductive health care decisions.”
Stein’s endorsements include, among others, House Democratic leader Robert Reives (I’m a fan), Justice Sam J. Ervin IV (I’m not a fan), Governor Roy Cooper, and AFL-CIO President MaryBe McMillian. Nonetheless in an open letter to Stein from Emancipate NC in 2021, the Racial Equity Taskforce claimed Stein “was on the wrong side of some of the most critical civil rights and criminal justice issues facing North Carolina.”
And even I have taken Stein to task for his decision not to bring charges against alleged registration and absentee voter fraud involving the 2020 election by then Chief of Staff to President Trump Mark Meadows. I mean come on. Meadows and his wife claimed this was their residence for voting purposes:
There are also persistent knocks against crowning Josh Stein as heir apparent to Roy Cooper. That Stein is “Too cautious.” “Too elite.” “Too Establishment.” “Too Morgan Jackson.”
I’m not saying I agree with all that. After all, I’m no attorney, and even less a Raleigh insider, and it looks to me like Stein has overall been a really good Attorney General. But there is something to be said about the Morgan Jackson thing.
Morgan Jackson has been Roy Cooper’s main man for years, his political guru, and he took over the Josh Stein campaign for governor long ago. Jackson founded Nexus Strategies and has worked many successful and some losing campaigns, and has a formidable network of power and influence. In my purposely limited experience with Raleigh politics, I have discovered that Jackson pulls a lot of strings behind closed doors long after campaigns are over, and not always in ways that benefit progressive candidates. But that’s a story for another day….
Fact remains, Stein can boast a record of good work, he’s already taking on crazy Mark Robinson,and he’s banked a lot of money to do it.
Marcus W. Williams
https://www.facebook.com/marcus.williams.5243817/
https://twitter.com/marc7marcus?lang=en (last posted to in 2021)
https://www.williamshouseusa.com/
No current website found (Jan.) though Googling will uncover discrete websites for a Congressional run and his campaign for US Senate in 2022.
Williams is from Lumberton, NC, is a perennial candidate, and he keeps raising his sights. He’s run previously in primaries for Congress and US Senate (2022). Apparently, he won’t quit until he’s Governor. There’s nothing like persistence. More power to him, I say.
Williams earned his B.A. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1975 and his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1978. His professional experience includes working as attorney at a private practice, as an Assistant Public Defender for the State of North Carolina from 2001 to 2006, as an executive director for Pennsylvania Legal Services from 1996 to 2000, as an executive director for Legal Services of the Lower Cape Fear from 1987 from 1996, as an executive director for Legal Services of the Coastal Plains from 1983 from 1987 and as attorney/law clerk/community fellow from Southern Minnesota Regional Services from 1976 to 1983.
Williams’ platform focus is to fully fund the public school system, protect women’s right to decide on medical care decisions, create more housing, increase salaries for law enforcement and create a panel where citizens can review police cameras in specific cases. His platform for his former bid for US Senate can be found here.
Williams’ has chosen not to seek endorsements and lists one of his major accomplishments as one that “led community economic development projects including building 79 units of housing for elderly and handicapped people and leading the effort to restore an inner-city school.”
Chrelle Booker
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100058725664974
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrelle-booker-882b20237
No website has been found as of this date.
NOTE: Booker still has up her FB page for her 2022 run against Cheri Beasley in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, and there is an interview with her on youtube that addresses her issues for that race.
Booker is from Tryon, NC and is currently serving as a local Councilwoman and Mayor Pro-tem there. She is also a former President of Women In Municipal Government, National League of Cities, and in the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.
Booker, who also works in broadcasting and real estate, ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 in the Democratic primary. Earlier this year, Booker was invited to the first-ever Cities Summit of the Americas in Denver by the U.S. State Department, an international planning meeting that was attended by representatives from 35 different countries in North and South America.
In the exhausting Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2022, which Cheri Beasley won going away, Booker came in 7th (of 11), garnering 1.61% of the vote.