As the national spotlight focuses on the 2016 presidential race, campaigns are gearing up here in North Carolina for the 2016 gubernatorial race. There are many competing for the office of governor, including incumbent Gov. Pat McCrory, who is fighting to retain his position amid dropping approval rates.
Candidates currently seeking the Democratic primary nomination are incumbent North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper and Ken Spaulding, former North Carolina House Representative and former member of the North Carolina Board of Transportation. There has been talk that Anthony Foxx, current United States Secretary of Transportation and former Mayor of Charlotte, may join the race.
So far, McCrory’s only Republican challenger may be Dr. Greg Brannon, a Cary, North Carolina based physician who made a bid in 2014 for a position in the United States Senate and finished second. He is rumored to be considering running for governor in 2016, though there has been no confirmation of his intentions.
Libertarian Ken Fortenberry has also announced his candidacy for the 2016 race as a third-party candidate.
Fortenberry, an author, journalist and former newspaper publisher, failed to secure the 2012 Republican nomination for North Carolina’s 10th congressional district. Fortenberry is both a former Republican and former member of the Democratic Party. High Country Press writes that Fortenberry’s platform includes ending the War on Drugs, lowering North Carolina’s drinking age to 18 and lowering personal income taxes in the state by 50 percent over the course of five years.
Thus far Cooper has proved to be one of McCrory’s biggest threats, especially because of his extensive prior political experience. Before being elected attorney general in 2001, he was a member of the North Carolina House from 1987 to 1990, the North Carolina Senate from 1991 to 2000, and has served as the Senate majority leader starting from 1997.
According to North Carolina based Public Policy Polling (PPP), recent polls show Cooper is barely trailing McCrory, polling at 41 percent, just three percentage points behind the incumbent governor. The PPP reports that, as of Sept. 30, 27 percent view him favorably, compared the 24 percent of participants who hold a negative opinion of the current attorney general. Almost half of voters have no opinion of Cooper.
According to a Huffington Post article by Samantha Lachman published Apr. 2 of this year, “In North Carolina, which has had Democratic governors for the vast majority of the last century, a Cooper victory would return the state to divided government. (After McCrory was elected in 2012, Republicans had complete control of the executive and legislative branches for the first time in more than 100 years.)”
In a statement released in August Spaulding said, “The taxpayers and voters are looking for a reasonable alternative to the extremist positions and actions taken by the governor and his legislative majority.”
The North Carolina legislature has been steadily moving toward the right since 2010, according to Lachman. The legislature and current governor have been struggling to maintain public favor, with public approval ratings dipping to 14 percent and 36 percent respectively, according to the PPP.
The primaries for the gubernatorial election are set for Mar. 15, 2016. The general election will take place Nov. 8, 2016.