2020 North Carolina Attorney General election

The 2020 North Carolina election for Attorney General was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the Attorney General of North Carolina, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

2020 North Carolina Attorney General election

← 2016 November 3, 2020 2024 →
Turnout75.35% Increase 6.37 pp
 
Nominee Josh Stein Jim O'Neill
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote 2,713,400 2,699,778
Percentage 50.13% 49.87%

Stein:      50-60%      60-70%      70-80%      80–90%      >90%
O'Neill:      50-60%      60-70%      70-80%      80–90%      >90%
Tie:      50%

Attorney General before election

Josh Stein
Democratic

Elected Attorney General

Josh Stein
Democratic

Party primary elections were held on March 3, 2020.

Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, first elected in 2016, ran for re-election against Republican Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O'Neill.[1] With a narrow margin separating Stein and O'Neill (0.26%), the Associated Press was finally able to call Stein the winner on November 17, 2020, (two weeks after Election Day).[2] This also made this attorney general race the closest of the 2020 election cycle.

Democratic primary

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Candidates

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Nominee

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Republican primary

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Candidates

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Nominee

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  • Jim O'Neill, Forsyth County district attorney and candidate for North Carolina Attorney General in 2016[4]

Eliminated in primary

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Results

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Results by county
  O'Neill
  •   30–40%
  •   40–50%
  •   50–60%
  •   60–70%
  •   70–80%
  Hayes
  •   30–40%
  •   40–50%
  •   50–60%
  Mumma
  •   30–40%
  •   40–50%
Republican primary results[7]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Jim O'Neill 338,567 46.55%
Republican Sam Hayes 226,453 31.14%
Republican Christine Mumma 162,301 22.31%
Total votes 727,321 100.00%

General election

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Predictions

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Source Ranking As of
The Cook Political Report[8] Lean D June 25, 2020

Polling

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Poll source Date(s)
administered
Sample
size
Margin of
error
Josh
Stein (D)
Jim
O'Neill (R)
Other Undecided
East Carolina University October 27–28, 2020 1,103 (LV) ± 3.4% 49% 42% 3%[a] 6%
Meeting Street Insights (R) Archived 2020-10-31 at the Wayback Machine October 24–27, 2020 600 (LV) ± 4% 49% 44% 4%
East Carolina University October 15–18, 2020 1,155 (LV) ± 3.4% 49% 44% 2%[b] 5%
East Carolina University October 2–4, 2020 1,232 (LV) ± 3.2% 43% 46% 2%[c] 9%
Cardinal Point Analytics (R) July 22–24, 2020 735 (LV) ± 3.6% 40% 45% 15%
Cardinal Point Analytics (R) July 13–15, 2020 547 (LV) ± 4.2% 43% 43% 14%

Results

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North Carolina Attorney General election, 2020[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Josh Stein (incumbent) 2,713,400 50.13% −0.14%
Republican Jim O'Neill 2,699,778 49.87% +0.14%
Total votes 5,413,178 100.00% N/A
Democratic hold

By congressional district

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Despite losing the state, O'Neill won 8 of 13 congressional districts.[10]

District Stein O'Neill Representative
1st 56% 44% G. K. Butterfield
2nd 65% 35% George Holding
Deborah K. Ross
3rd 39% 61% Greg Murphy
4th 67% 33% David Price
5th 34% 66% Virginia Foxx
6th 62% 38% Mark Walker
Kathy Manning
7th 43% 57% David Rouzer
8th 48% 52% Richard Hudson
9th 46% 54% Dan Bishop
10th 33% 67% Patrick McHenry
11th 45% 55% Madison Cawthorn
12th 70% 30% Alma Adams
13th 34% 66% Ted Budd

Notes

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  1. ^ Did/would not vote with 3%
  2. ^ Would/did not vote with 2%
  3. ^ Would not vote with 2%

References

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  1. ^ Friedman, Corey (November 9, 2016). "Josh Stein bests Buck Newton in attorney general race". The Wilson Times. Archived from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  2. ^ "Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein Wins Reelection". WUNC. November 18, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
  3. ^ Bonner, Lynn; Thompson, Elizabeth (March 10, 2019). "Who's running in North Carolina's 2020 statewide races?". The News & Observer. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  4. ^ Hewlett, Michael (February 8, 2019). "Forsyth DA Jim O'Neill announces run for N.C. attorney general. He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2016". Winston-Salem Journal.
  5. ^ Fain, Travis (December 20, 2019). "Filing flurry fills NC ballots". WRAL. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  6. ^ Specht, Paul (December 20, 2019). "NC Attorney General Stein gets challenge from innocence group leader". WRAL. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  7. ^ "NC SBE Contest Results". er.ncsbe.gov. North Carolina Board of Elections. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  8. ^ "An Updated Look at Handicapping the 2020 Attorney General Elections". The Cook Political Report. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  9. ^ "State Composite Abstract Report - Contest.pdf" (PDF). North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  10. ^ "DRA 2020". Daves Redistricting. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
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Official campaign websites