Public Radio for the Piedmont and High Country
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

No Runoff In NC Lt. Gov. Democratic Primary Race

State Rep. Yvonne Holley, Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor. /ncleg.gov

The race for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor was close but there won't be a runoff.

State Rep. Yvonne Holley took the most votes in last week's election but didn't clear the 30 percent threshold to avoid a runoff. That threat has ended with runner-up Terry Van Duyn now conceding the race.

Van Duyn had been pressured to yield to Holley to avoid an expensive runoff campaign.

The decision means that North Carolina's next lietentant govrnor will likely be African American. Holley is black, as is her Republican opponent Mark Robinson of Greensboro, the top vote-getter in a crowded GOP field. 

While unaffiliated candidates can still get on the ballot with enough signatures, that's extremely unlikely to occur. 

Only one black politician has ever been elected to a statewide Council of State office in North Carolina history: State Auditor Ralph Campbell Jr., a Democrat who was elected in 1992 and served for 12 years. 

 

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate