NC Lieutenant 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: No brainer for me. Rachel Hunt is the real deal, walks-the-walk woman I’ve been waiting for.
Rachel Hunt
https://www.facebook.com/HuntForNC
Hunt is a very active, roll-up-her-sleeves candidate, with regular postings to her Facebook page showing her commitment to visiting with Democratic parties across the state.
Hunt is an attorney and a mother. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and her law degree from the University of South Carolina. Her initial legal career was spent defending woman and children in Court and in volunteering in public schools.
Hunt was first elected in the 2018 Blue Wave to an NC House seat from Mecklenburg County, reelected in 2020, and then elected to an overlapping NC Senate seat in 2022. The upward trajectory of Rachel Hunt could not be clearer. She announced at the beginning of March 2023 that she would be seeking the office of Lt. Gov.
Hunt’s priorities in her run for Lt. Governor are nicely fleshed out on her website: standing up for rural areas, keeping communities safe, prioritizing a quality education, protecting the environment, securing democracy, supporting small business and veterans, affordable health care, and defending women’s health care rights.
The daughter of the celebrated “education governor” Jim Hunt, Rachel Hunt has also made education advocacy and activism the hallmark of her career. She created businesses to help match students to schools, and she has served on the North Carolina Charter Schools Advisory Board and the North Carolina Education and Workforce Innovation Commission.
Hunt also serves on the board of directors (and previously as chairperson) of the Charlotte Secondary School, a public charter school where her son attended. In addition, she is involved in Generation Nation and the North Carolina Foundation for Public School Children. One of the mandated roles for the NC Lt. Gov. is service on the State Board of Education.
Hunt is no shrinking violet either. At the time of her announcement for Governor, Hunt said this about the current occupant of the office, Mark Robinson, who is stepping down to run for governor: “I’ve had a front row seat to the damage that Lt. Gov. Robinson has done to our state and the office. North Carolinians deserve leaders that are focused on the right priorities like expanding access to affordable health care, increasing the minimum wage, investing in our schools, and cleaning up the water we drink and air we breathe.”
Hunt is endorsed by, among others, Emily’s List, the NC Sierra Club, Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, the Peoples’ Alliance, NC-AFL-CIO, Congressman Jeff Jackson, numerous state Senators and House representatives, and the North Carolina Association of Educators & Great Public Schools Fund PAC.
Mark H. Robinson
No social media found as of the time of this writing.
Mark H. Robinson is a Sampson County Democrat and not the Mark Robinson currently in the job, and seems destined to confuse all sorts of people with the similarity of names. He filed less than an hour before the filing deadline, which in itself seemed instantly suspicious and I personally couldn’t help wondering if he had been put up to it to deliberately create confusion.
But research shows that he looks legit. He’s a Navy veteran and has an MBA from Duke University. “I’m not trying to confuse anyone,” he told reporters.
The Urban News reported that Robinson is one of 10 kids and grew up on a farm, describes himself as a “moderate” (but I don’t know what that means to him because I can’t find a platform anywhere), retired as a captain from the Navy after 30 years service, and worked for some 15 years at Sikorsky Aircraft in Connecticut. He’s 61 now, owns a cotton candy business which he takes to festivals and fairs, and is traveling around the state campaigning in a big bus named Bessie after his maternal grandmother. Which I actually find a fine thing.
This is apparently Robinson’s first run for public office. He promises to visit all 100 counties, but I haven’t seen him yet and can’t seem to get his website to come up. According to WRAL, Robinson says if his bus doesn’t work out, “he’s converting his bus into an R.V. ‘And I’m driving out to California with it to see my niece.”
Ben Clark
https://www.facebook.com/BenClark4NC
Clark was born on the Ft. Bragg military base where his father was a helicopter pilot, and he grew up in Fayetteville. “He studied industrial technology at NC A&T State University and graduated from NC A&T. Shortly after, Clark went on active duty as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US. Air Force and while on active duty, Ben earned his MBA at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. After his retirement in 2001, he taught high school science in Maryland and North Carolina before returning to Ft. Bragg to work for a military contractor.
Clark has since served as a 5-term state senator representing Hoke and Cumberland counties. He stepped down after gerrymandered redistricting made his district much more Republican in 2022 and ran instead for Congress against Republican Richard Hudson in the CD9 but got only 43.5% of the vote. Clark is attempting another political comeback this year by running for a statewide office.
Clark offers a nicely constructed website that offers good details on his campaign platform. He discusses his focus as protecting democracy, supporting the military, paid family leave and increased pay for teachers, healthcare access, preservation of local control of schools, and protecting the environment.