Weatherman pitches candidacy to Wilson County voters

Lieutenant governor candidate Hal Weatherman joined the Wilson County Republican Party for its monthly social on Tuesday, touting self-reliance, technical education and hard work as the keys to unlock a more prosperous North Carolina.

“I want to free people of their dependencies,” Weatherman said. “You can’t do that unless you’re self-sufficient, and you can’t do that as a society unless you restore what I call the dignity of work. There’s dignity in every form of work. Our society has lost that.”

Weatherman was former Lt. Gov. Dan Forest’s chief of staff throughout his two terms. Playing an instrumental role in Forest’s campaigns, Weatherman said he knows how to work for the office.

“Dan (Forest) was the first Republican to ever win reelection to the lieutenant governor seat in North Carolina,” Weatherman said. “He’s one of four or five since the 1860s, so we know what it takes to win this race, and we’re confident we will. There will be no on-the-job training for me. I’ve been to all 100 counties multiple times. I’ve seen this state. I consider it all great joy. I’ve gotten to meet its greatest assets — the people, you.”

Weatherman said his encyclopedic North Carolina knowledge is his greatest strength.

“When you’re the lieutenant governor, you want to lead a state,” Weatherman said. “You need to intimately know your state. You need to know the strengths of your state so you can play to them and know your weaknesses so you can mitigate them so you can best serve your people.”

Education is a primary focus for Weatherman, who supports training in the skilled trades to prepare students for good-paying blue-collar jobs. While Weatherman said he isn’t anti-education, he struggles to see how the four-year college system helps young people more than it hurts them.

“If I win, I’ll serve on the State Board of Education and the board of community colleges,” Weatherman said. “I have a passion for driving people into the trades. I want to drive a whole new generation of people to work with their hands. The fastest way to build a business that you can sell for seven figures down the road is to work with your hands. I just think we’ve missed an opportunity all these generations pushing a stigma against working with your hands.”

Weatherman praised the N.C. General Assembly but said the state’s overall trajectory needs to change.

“I love our General Assembly and the work that we’ve done, but I don’t like the overall direction of our state, and I want to change that,” Weatherman said. “I want to be there with Mark Robinson. I think I complement him well. We don’t run as a ticket, but we run as a team.”

Robinson is the Republican candidate for governor.

Weatherman entered the Republican Party primary as one candidate in an 11-man field for the party’s nomination. In the primary election, Weatherman brought in 19.6% of the vote, edging out runner-up Jim O’Neill by 3.8% of the total vote. O’Neill then requested a second primary between the two top finishers.

Weatherman decisively secured the Republican nomination in the runoff, taking 99 of North Carolina’s 100 counties en route to beating out O’Neill with more than 74% of votes cast.

“I have no name ID,” Weatherman said. “I’m a first-time candidate. I’m not using my name to draw votes. I like our chances to win despite that. When we look back, I think we’ll say it was the runoff that actually helped us the most. Instead of coming off as the nominee out of an 11-man field, we came out of the second primary as the decisive nominee who won and consolidated our base.”

Weatherman told the Times he’s not intimidated by his opponent, Rachel Hunt, daughter of former Gov. Jim Hunt, or the Hunt family’s name recognition.

“Elections are about the future,” Weatherman said. “Out of the 8.2 million names in the North Carolina voter roll, there’s only 500,000 that are on the roll today that were also on the roll in 1996, the last time Jim Hunt’s name appeared on a ballot. People in the east in the state say, ‘Oh, it’s going to be hard.’ It’s always hard if you’re a Republican. No kidding, it’s going to be hard. I’ve run two of the four winning Republican campaigns since 1896 and the only reelection. I know it’s hard.

“There will always be somebody with more money. There will always be somebody with more name recognition, but there will not be somebody who works harder than me.”

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