On Friday, 34 days remain until early voting in person in North Carolina. This means that races for lieutenant governor, like the one between Democrat Rachel Hunt and Republican Hal Weatherman, are almost over.
A small number of polls on the race show that it’s a tie.
The Carolina Forward did a study in August and found that Hunt only had a 2% edge over Weatherman. Weatherman was ahead by the same amount in another poll.
If Hunt won, it would mean a lot more trouble for Republicans in the state.
The state almost always voted for Democrats for almost 100 years. That began to change about 20 years ago, when the state slowly began to lean Republican.
Even though Democrats still win a lot of state races, Hunt will have a hard time because Democrats haven’t won deputy governor since 2008.
A statement from Weatherman said that Hunt, who is the daughter of former two-term governor Jim Hunt, pulled out of the only planned debate this week. This caused a lot of controversy.
The people running for Hunt said that they had never agreed to the argument. But several people who spoke to The Carolina Journal said that wasn’t true and that both teams had agreed as of next Tuesday.
Hunt is a well-known name in the state, and in the primary, he got more than 70% of the Democratic vote. Her efforts to raise money have far surpassed Weatherman’s, with individual donations being twice as high for her.
She also had more than nine times as much cash on hand as Weatherman did as the race came down to the wire. On June 30, the end of the second funding period, she had just over $1 million, while Weatherman had $114,000.
But Weatherman had spent about $56,000 more than Hunt at that point. All of this is based on documents about campaign funding.
Vice President Kamala Harris has backed Hunt. As part of her campaign, Hunt has made abortion, health care, and the environment important issues.
She wrote on social media, “We cannot let radical politicians take us backward and put North Carolina’s women and families in danger.”
Weatherman, who was backed by former President Donald Trump, calls himself a “principled conservative” and supports school choice, “deporting illegals,” and ending abortion.
On social media, Weatherman said, “I will not rule from Raleigh.” I will run the state government from North Carolina’s back roads, making it easy for people to reach me. I will also treat all of our counties with care, no matter how small or remote they are.
Weatherman is running for governor on the same ticket as Mark Robinson, who is currently Lt. Gov. and a Republican. Some people are worried about how Robinson’s campaign will affect other candidates.
Most polls show Robinson behind his Democratic opponent in the race for governor, by as little as 4% or as much as 13%.
For Democrats running for office in North Carolina, the Robinson race has also become a rallying cry. They call Robinson and other Republicans “extremists.”
Professor Jason Husser of Elon University told The Center Square that North Carolina’s lower-level races are often hard for Republicans, and Robinson could make that worse.
“It depends on the temperament of each voter as they go to the polls,” he said. “They might say they’re going to support Republicans at the federal level, but they’re worried about Robinson, so they might just keep an eye on Democrats in some state races.”
Republicans worry about that, but Husser said he doesn’t think it will make a big difference.
He said, “I don’t think that’ll be that many people.” “But the races in North Carolina are so close that a 5% change could make a difference.”