Joshua Harold Stein (born September 13, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician who is the governor-elect of North Carolina. He has been serving as the 51st attorney general of North Carolina since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Stein previously served in the North Carolina Senate from 2009 to 2016. Born in Washington, D.C., Stein moved to North Carolina with his family at an early age. He studied at Dartmouth College and earned his Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School before being elected to represent North Carolina's 16th Senate district in 2008. Stein left the state Senate upon winning the Democratic nomination in the 2016 North Carolina Attorney General election and defeated Republican state senator Buck Newton by 0.54%, making him the first Jewish person to win a statewide election in North Carolina. He was re-elected in 2020 after narrowly defeating Republican Forsyth County district attorney Jim O'Neill by a margin of 0.26%. Stein chose not to seek a third term as state attorney general and instead opted to run for governor in the 2024 North Carolina gubernatorial election. After winning the Democratic nomination, he defeated Republican nominee Mark Robinson in the general election by 14.8%.

Early life and education

Stein was born on September 13, 1966, in Washington, D.C., the son of Jane (Stoneman) and Adam Stein. His family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, before settling in Chapel Hill, where his father co-founded North Carolina's first integrated law firm. He attended Chapel Hill High School and played on its state championship soccer team. After graduating from high school, Stein earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in History at Dartmouth College in 1988. After college, he taught English and economics in Zimbabwe. Stein then went on to earn degrees from Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government.

Early career

In the 1990s, Stein interned for State Representative Dan Blue. Out of law school, Stein worked for the Self-Help Credit Union and the North Carolina Minority Support Center. After managing the successful campaign for U.S. Senate candidate John Edwards in 1998, he served as Edwards' deputy chief of staff from January 1999 to December 2000. According to Edwards official Andrew Young, Elizabeth Edwards prevented her husband from naming Stein his chief of staff in the Senate because he withheld information from her, which was at John's direction. In 2001, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper appointed Stein as Senior Deputy Attorney General for Consumer Protection. He held that position until his election to the state senate in 2008. From 2012 until 2016, he served as Of Counsel at Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP, a regional law firm. Stein defeated Republican John Alexander to represent the 16th district in the North Carolina Senate in 2008. After being re-elected in 2010, he was elected minority whip by his colleagues. In the Senate, Stein worked to expand the state's DNA database, ban cyberstalking, extend and expand the state's renewable energy tax credit, and improve school safety.

North Carolina Attorney General

As Attorney General, Stein has worked to eliminate North Carolina's backlog of untested sexual assault kits, the largest in the nation. This has led to new arrests in cases involving a 2015 assault and attempted murder in Durham, North Carolina; assaults in 2009 and 2010 in Fayetteville; and a 1993 assault in Winston-Salem. Stein led the bipartisan effort of state Attorneys General to negotiate a national settlement framework with drug companies–manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacy chains–over the nation's opioid epidemic, totaling more than $50 billion. North Carolina's share of the settlement was $1.5 billion. Stein negotiated a memorandum of agreement with the state's counties that ensured the vast majority of the funds would go to prevention, harm reduction, treatment or recovery. Johns Hopkins School of Public Health recognized this partnership as one of the best in the nation. In 2018, Stein filed a brief with the United States Supreme Court arguing in favor of the Affordable Care Act. In 2019, Stein became the first attorney general in the country to sue e-cigarette manufacturer Juul for unlawful marketing to minors. Stein won multiple settlements with Juul totaling nearly $48 million that set a standard the rest of the nation is now following. Stein has filed briefs supporting medication abortions and opposing restrictions on women from traveling to receive healthcare. Stein opposed the state's 12-week abortion ban enacted in 2023. Stein negotiated eight Anti-Robocall Principles with a bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general and 12 companies to protect phone users from illegal robocalls. He also launched Operation Silver Shield, an effort to protect older North Carolinians from fraud and scams. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stein won a preliminary injunction against a Charlotte tow company sued for price-gouging, and announced the investigation of nine North Carolina–based sellers on Amazon who are accused of raising prices on coronavirus-related products, including hand sanitizer and N95 masks. Stein has won more than $1 million in price-gouging cases. The Legislature voted to remove Stein as their legal representation before the courts on August 21, 2021, after he refused to appeal the findings of a lower court that a North Carolina state law that disenfranchised anyone convicted of a felony was unconstitutional. Stein cited he had been waiting for the ruling to be formally filed. Legislative leaders alleged Stein was "slow-walking" the case to allow felons to vote in the next election and used these claims to justify his immediate removal.

2024 gubernatorial campaign

On January 18, 2023, Stein formally announced his candidacy for the office of governor of North Carolina in the 2024 election. Stein was endorsed by Governor Roy Cooper along with hundreds of other elected officials and organizations. During Super Tuesday, Stein advanced to the general election and to face Republican lieutenant governor Mark Robinson. Following a CNN report on inflammatory and antisemitic comments Robinson had made on a pornography forum, Stein emerged as the heavy favorite in the race. Stein easily won the election by a margin of over 14%, despite Republican Donald Trump defeating Democrat Kamala Harris by 3.4% in the concurrent 2024 presidential election in North Carolina. Stein had previously only won statewide by 0.54% in 2016 and 0.26% in 2020.

Personal life

Stein is married to Anna Harris Stein and has three children; Sam, Adam, and Leah. Stein is Jewish, and is projected to become North Carolina’s first Jewish governor. He and his family are members of Temple Beth Or, a Reform synagogue in Raleigh. He is a former YMCA basketball and J.C.C. soccer coach.

Electoral history