(This story was updated to add new information.)
His family has dedicated their careers to social justice and now this Democratic attorney general is looking to continue his family’s legacy of service as the state’s next governor.
Josh Stein, 58, was born in Washington, D.C., but spent his childhood in Chapel Hill and Charlotte and later raised his three children, Leah, Adam and Sam, in Raleigh with his wife, Anna.
From before Stein was born, his family name had a stake in Tar Heel State social justice issues and politics. His father, Adam Stein, worked with well-known civil rights lawyer Julius Chambers at the state’s first integrated law firm, even challenging the General Assembly in voting and equity cases, and his mother worked in public health research.
And Josh Stein takes pride in that legacy.
“Some things are worth fighting for, no matter the opposition,” Stein said in a campaign video recollecting a lesson his father taught him.
The instinct to use his power for good has always been a part of his life, he said.
“Honestly, I don’t know any other way of living,” Stein said. “It’s just how we are, how they raised us.”
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Public service sans the flashy headlines
He isn’t known for bold politics or headline-making comments, but maybe that’s why he’s the best person fit to serve the state of North Carolina, said Anderson Clayton, chair of the state’s Democratic Party.
Clayton, a 26-year-old from Roxboro, first met Stein at a barbeque joint in Raleigh just days after beating out an incumbent for her party chair seat.
“If I could show everybody in the state of North Carolina this man right here, you know, I think we could get you elected as governor,” Clayton said she told Stein over lunch.
Although Stein has largely avoided negative media coverage, something his opponent Mark Robinson cannot say, he started the race with far lower name recognition than Robinson.
In a Meredith Poll conducted before Super Tuesday, more respondents could identify Robinson than Stein.
In some ways, his toned-down style of campaigning has helped him reach unaffiliated voters, wrote David McLennan, director of the Meredith Poll, in the November poll report.
Despite his starting point in the race, Stein won the five-person Democratic primary with almost 70% of the vote.
Clayton said there is a trend in politics today that encourages politicians to have big personalities, but that doesn’t have to be the focus, she said.
People say politicians “have to be some sort of a magnet,” Clayton said. “And it’s like no, you can just be an everyday person that cares about the people around you and that does something really great.”
That’s exactly who Stein is, she said, a public servant who genuinely cares about getting work done. She also described him as “your average dad” who’s really proud of his kids.
His older sister, Gerda Stein, 60, agreed with Clayton.
Gerda Stein, who also has an inclination to serve her community with a history in social work and the criminal justice reform system, called Josh Stein “fundamentally good and caring and generous.”
Although he keeps his personal life pretty private – sometimes posting photos of his family on walks with his dogs, congratulatory wishes to his children and quick love notes to his wife – he is a high-energy, people-loving person, Gerda Stein who lives only three houses away from her brother, said.
Stein is quick to outline his love for people too when talking about his life in public service, and said he’s known for his dad jokes which make him “really very cool” to young people.
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Stein’s early days in politics
Before ever representing North Carolina constituents, Stein was an advocate for his peers.
In high school, he organized a voter registration drive and debate between county commissioner candidates, out of his excitement to vote, he recalled.
He’s always been a leader who “encourages people to use their strengths,” Gerda Stein said.
Although not yet set on politics, Stein interned at the General Assembly in the summer of 1994, marking his first introduction to a life in government.
He interned under Sen. Dan Blue, a Democrat from Wake County who also serves as the current Senate Democratic leader.
Blue was no stranger to the Stein family, having clerked for Adam Stein’s law firm when he was in law school.
“When he applied to intern with me, you know I was happy to bring him in,” Blue said. “He had an incredible record, was engaging fellow, but curious and I thought it would be a good experience for him and it was. And he was a good addition to the office at that time.”
Aside from Blue, Stein said he looks toward the current Gov. Roy Cooper as an example.
Cooper leads “In a way that doesn’t compromise his integrity or values,” Stein said. “He does it in a way that is respectful, and kind and he does it in a way that’s principled where he holds fast to what he believes to be true.”
After completing his degrees at Dartmouth College as an undergraduate and a master’s and Juris Doctor at Harvard, Stein started making a name for himself in politics.
First, he served as senior deputy attorney general, and he later went on to represent Wake County as a senator from 2009 to 2016, where he swept his competition in the elections.
Years after his summer internship, Stein and Blue worked side-by-side in the legislature.
As colleagues, Blue described Stein as a “very bright guy” who understood “what our challenges were, the intricacies of proposed legislation.”
As Stein campaigns in the gubernatorial race, he is finishing out his second term as the state’s attorney general where he won by small margins.
During his time as attorney general, Stein worked to target the opioid crisis, calling on Congress to contribute millions for fentanyl scanners at the border and leading a Fentanyl Task Force within the North Carolina Department of Justice. He also worked to keep young people safe by successfully suing Juul, an e-cigarette company, for marketing to young people and ending the state’s rape kit backlog.
A life of service stemming from his faith
There’s a phrase in Judaism, the faith Stein grew up in and still prescribes to, called “tikkun olam.” It means everyone has a responsibility to heal the world, and it’s an aphorism that Gerda Stein said her entire family is guided by.
“We were raised to feel that we were part of a bigger family, part of our community, our state, our country,” Gerda Stein said, and that gives them a sense of responsibility to make it a better place.
Josh Stein said the values of tolerance and recognition that he learned from his faith have helped him represent a diverse state.
“Every North Carolinians has the same claim to this state and its opportunities as everyone else,” he said.
“My faith teaches me that we’re all children of God and that we’re called to make a difference,” he said in his campaign video.
Despite the religious right and many Republicans using religion as a backing for abortion bans, Stein has done the opposite.
It’s a big reason why Melva Fager Okun, a long-time friend of the Steins, and voter education advocate within the faith community, is supporting Stein this November.
“He comes from the Jewish faith, and so … it’s embedded in his faith to feel that way,” Fager Okun said about Stein’s stance on reproductive rights.
She said his commitment to caring for people, and women, has always been of great importance to him. His stance on abortion isn’t his only pro-women stance, she added, citing his work to end the state’s rape kit backlog.
The Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic endorsed candidate has supported reproductive freedoms throughout his time in politics.
“Deciding whether and when to have a baby is the most personal decision a woman can make,” Stein wrote on his campaign website. “It is a decision that a woman should make with her loved ones and her doctor. It should not be made by politicians.”
More: Where do the candidates for North Carolina governor stand on abortion?
Ivy League educated politician speaking for all North Carolinians
Stein is an Ivy League educated lawyer, and his opponent has criticized career politicians like him.
“It doesn’t take an Ivy League education to understand the problems we’re facing,” Robinson said in a campaign video. “What it takes is somebody with a backbone and a vision, who cares about serving instead of climbing the political ladder.”
Even though Josh Stein didn’t grow up in rural North Carolina and doesn’t campaign on a childhood with financial struggle like Robinson does, his record speaks for his values and intentions, Clayton said.
Champion of Stein, Blue, agreed saying those jabs from the opposition don’t hold much weight.
“Somebody who achieves prominence at one of the premier law schools in the country ought to be respected, not reviled for some reason because he was smart enough to get in, and smart enough to succeed,” Blue said.
Stein’s resume doesn’t end at his Ivy League education. After his schooling, he worked in Zimbabwe teaching. He worked at Self-Help Credit Union helping create affordable housing. He worked with the North Carolina Minority Support Center helping small businesses and he’s worked to protect North Carolinians from scams and crimes as attorney general.
Aside from his resume, Stein explained that he makes an effort to talk with North Carolinians about their concerns and he feels their pain.
He has sat with women who submitted rape kits after being sexually assaulted and parents who have lost a child to a drug overdose, and “When you do that, it motivates you to try to fix something,” he said.
“I feel in my heart their pain and was able to work really hard with a lot of very smart people to develop strategies to attack those problems,” Stein said.
More: Where do the North Carolina candidates for governor stand on immigration?
Governing amid a Republican supermajority
Even if he wins the governorship, Stein may have a Republican majority on his hands in the General Assembly.
Currently, the state House and Senate hold supermajorities, meaning they can often override a governor’s veto, which they have done in recent sessions.
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Governing in that environment is a task that Blue thinks Stein is up for, but he won’t have to do it alone, he added.
“Governor Cooper was very successful for the four years that we had broken the supermajority,” Blue said, and he was quick to sprinkle in hope for the upcoming election.
“We’re only one vote away in our chamber, and one vote away in the House, and we feel pretty confident that we’re gonna break the supermajority again,” Blue said. “So, [Stein] will have bargaining power.”
Even in the scenario of a continued Republican supermajority, Blue said Senate Democrats will have Stein’s back, recollecting a similar time during Cooper’s service from 2019 to 2023.
“Governor Cooper vetoed 47 pieces of legislation, and the Senate Democrats upheld every single veto that he made,” Blue said. “So that put him in a position to negotiate Medicaid expansion, to negotiate one of the most far-reaching environmental bills regarding utility power generation in the country.”
Stein isn’t nervous about governing in that type of environment, he said, pointing to the work he’s done as attorney general working with both sides of the aisle.
“We’ve been able to get good things done and I will strive to find those issues where we can make progress together,” Stein said.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Who is Josh Stein, Democratic candidate for North Carolina governor?
