Republicans have chosen their nominees for NC lieutenant governor and auditor

Hal Weatherman is Republican voters’ choice in the runoff election for lieutenant governor.

The Associated Press called the race for Weatherman Tuesday about 20 minutes after polls closed in North Carolina’s second primary election, held statewide to select the Republican nominees for lieutenant governor and state auditor.

In the runoff for auditor, Dave Boliek, a member of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, defeated Jack Clark, a staffer for a budget chair in the N.C. House, AP projected.

And former federal prosecutor Brad Knott won his 13th Congressional District GOP runoff.

Democrats made their picks in the March 3 primary, but Republican candidates in those races did not gain enough votes to win the primary outright. So Republican voters, and those unaffiliated voters who voted in the first Republican primary, headed back to the ballot box to narrow the field to one.

Weatherman was chief of staff for former Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest. His opponent, Jim O’Neill, is the district attorney for Forysth County.

The job of lieutenant governor has few official duties, but significant ones: they preside over the Senate and vote if there is a tie. They also serve on the State Board of Education and State Board of Community Colleges.

O’Neill vs. Weatherman

Weatherman has been on the campaign trail for well over a year, visiting Republican groups across the state. He was not just Forest’s chief of staff when Forest was lieutenant governor, but also ran his campaigns. Forest was defeated in 2020 by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who won a second term.

Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein are running for governor. Stein narrowly defeated O’Neill in the 2020 election.

Weatherman, 54, of Wake Forest, was endorsed by Forest and Robinson. O’Neill, 58, was endorsed by law enforcement groups. O’Neill has been focused on his record as district attorney for Forsyth County.

Weatherman told The N&O in a recent interview that his focus as lieutenant governor would be on removing the “stigma that our society has put on men and women who work with their hands, that work in the trades. I’m passionate about that.”

He said he wants to create a new career and degree path for students: spending two years learning a trade in community college before transferring into a UNC System school. He hopes the result would give them “all the tools to be an entrepreneur and run their own business, but it’s coupled with a skill set, like the trades.”

O’Neill said as lieutenant governor he would be “somebody that has a dedicated interest in keeping people safe and communities safe.”

O’Neill also talked about being supportive of law enforcement in a recent interview with The N&O, saying that officers choose a dangerous career because it’s a calling. O’Neill said he would “remind people this is an honored and sacred profession.”

The winner faces Democratic state Sen. Rachel Hunt in the November general election. Hunt’s focus during her campaign and as a senator has been on public education.

She has also already announced a news conference for Wednesday about the need for a constitutional amendment supporting women’s health care and abortion rights.

Clark vs. Boliek

Clark finished first in the March GOP primary for auditor, but on Tuesday he trailed Boliek in the second primary.

Boliek will now face State Auditor Jessica Holmes, a Democrat, in November. Holmes was appointed to the position in December by Gov. Roy Cooper after longtime Auditor Beth Wood resigned.

Boliek, a small business owner and former prosecutor who previously served as the chair of the UNC Board of Trustees, told The N&O this month that he has wide-ranging experience “of being somebody who can get things done.”

“If voters are looking for somebody to show up at the state auditor’s office with a Ziploc bag full of No. 2 pencils, and a calculator in his or her hand, don’t vote for me,” Boliek said in an interview. “I want to go to the office to set a tone, identify the areas where taxpayers can save the most money, and gain the most efficiency.”

Boliek was quick to identify areas of state government that he believed were long overdue for an audit, identifying the Division of Motor Vehicles as “target No. 1” due to its inefficiency and poor customer service. Boliek also said the auditor’s office should conduct oversight of elections, to give the public confidence in how elections are run, and look at administrative bloat in public schools, universities, and state government.

“I hear complaint after complaint after complaint about teacher pay, and about classroom size, but when I was in high school, there might have been one or two assistant principals,” Boliek said. “I know, today, you go to one of these high schools, there’s a dozen assistant principals.”

Clark is a certified public accountant and research assistant for Rep. Kyle Hall, one of the GOP budget chairs in the N.C. House.

In an interview earlier this month, Clark told The N&O that he decided to run for auditor because “auditors don’t usually run for office,” and he believed voters would support a candidate with auditing and accounting experience.

As a legislative research assistant who has seen the budget process up close, Clark said he has the experience to audit how taxpayer money is allocated and spent. Before working in the General Assembly, Clark worked as an external auditor at Grant Thornton, and an internal auditor at Parexel.

“I want to be a trusted resource, I want to be trusted by everyone in the state, and if I’m campaigning on pledging certain things, it might hurt that trust,” he told The N&O before the election.

Turnout during runoffs

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, told reporters Monday that turnout in runoffs is usually low.

Brinson Bell said that turnout in the first primary was about 24% of eligible voters.