NC governor’s race: Stein’s money, Robinson takes no questions, Cooper comments on Biden

Welcome to the governor’s race edition of our Under the Dome politics newsletter. I’m Dawn Vaughan , The News & Observer’s Capitol bureau chief.

The Republican candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson , and the Democratic candidate, Attorney General Josh Stein , had a campaign finance deadline a few days ago. Stein’s report is in, while Robinson’s had yet to be posted on the State Board of Elections website as of Friday afternoon.

Reports for the second quarter of the year cover Feb. 18 through June 30. You can read Stein’s report here , and I’ll be spending more time diving into the numbers that show Stein raising more than $13 million this quarter. Most were individual donations, while others came from political party committees and PACs.

Most GOP leaders talk to reporters, but Robinson doesn’t

As I wrote about in last week’s governor’s race newsletter, after spending hours watching Robinson’s full speech and visit to Lake Church in Bladen County, I included the context of his “Get mad at me if you want to. Some folks need killing,” quote that has been covered extensively by the press and used by Democrats to highlight why they want to defeat him.

As I wrote about then, Robinson spoke about freedom, mentioned several wars, including World War II, which is when he made the comment about the United States fighting Nazis and Japan, and then continued by referencing the “boys in blue ” and the need for the U.S. to “start handling our business again.”

In speech about freedom ‘slipping away,’ Mark Robinson talks about ‘wicked people,’ killing

A few days later at the Legislative Building, he admonished reporters who wanted to ask him some questions, including about that speech — calling out from the elevator after an unrelated news event that they “should be ashamed,” The N&O previously reported. If you watched the video from CBS 17 and WRAL-TV, you can see that reporters waited until after the event and walked out behind Robinson to ask questions.

Other Republican leaders in North Carolina state government regularly take a series of questions from reporters about a variety of topics. After most House and Senate sessions, Republican House Speaker Tim Moore and Republican Senate leader Phil Berger usually talk to reporters in the press corps. On the same day that Robinson called out from a Legislative Building elevator, Moore talked to reporters twice, both after that same event and after a nonvoting House session.

Democratic lawmakers are also accessible to reporters, but like Republicans, vary by lawmaker.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper does very few sit-down interviews with North Carolina reporters, usually only once a year, though he calls in to national television shows more often. However, Cooper will take a variety of questions from statewide and local reporters for a few minutes after most public events.

This was the second time recently that Robinson quickly departed without taking a single reporter question after a public event. He did the same after a Moms for Liberty event on the lawn outside the Legislative Building.

Speaking of Cooper...

Questions about Cooper’s political future continue, as President Joe Biden still faces attention from Democrats and news media on whether he’ll stay in the race. If Biden stepped aside for Vice President Kamala Harris to be the nominee, one name on multiple short lists of potential running mates for her is Cooper. As we’ve reported, they have known each other for years and both served as attorneys general.

Cooper took the stage in Greensboro on Thursday before Harris’ campaign speech, which included her saying that Biden is “a fighter” who is staying in the race.

Then he was asked about the speculation on Friday, my colleague Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi reports:

Cooper on Biden

Asked, during an announcement that Medicaid expansion has enrolled 500,000 people in North Carolina, whether he had had any conversations with Harris or the Biden campaign about it, Cooper said, “that’s the kind of speculation we do not need right now. Yesterday my conversations with her were about winning in November.”

On his thoughts on Biden’s press conference Thursday — and whether Biden successfully alleviated concerns about his age and leadership capacity — Cooper said “he showed a real command of foreign policy, really extraordinary. I don’t think Donald Trump can talk about foreign policy coherently for one minute.”

Asked if he had been involved in conversations about being VP, Cooper point blank said “no.”

— Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi

Stein on Biden-Harris

Back to the governor’s race. I asked Stein’s campaign what he thinks of Biden staying in the race, and if he thinks Harris or another Democrat should lead the ticket, as well as about the Cooper speculation.

Stein took the stage at Biden’s campaign rally in Raleigh in late June, but he was not at Harris’ event in Greensboro on Thursday. His campaign said he had a scheduling conflict, and in answer to my questions about Biden, Harris and Cooper, referred me to previous comments from Stein to the local CBS affiliate and MSNBC.

Stein told CBS 17 on Wednesday that the decision about staying in the race is up to Biden.

“He has all the delegates. And he has indicated he is running for reelection. And there’s no question that I think our future as a country is better with him as the president rather than his opponent. I am running for governor. We are applying for different jobs,” Stein told CBS 17 .

Stay informed about #ncpol

Don’t forget to follow our Under the Dome tweets and listen to our Under the Dome podcast to stay up to date. Our new episode posts Monday morning, and I’m joined by former Republican state Sen. Jim Perry . Perry and I have a wide-ranging conversation about him, the legislature, politics and Robinson and Trump, too.

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