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2020 North Carolina gubernatorial election

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Turnout	75.35% 6.37pp
Nominee Roy Cooper Dan Forest Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 2,834,790 2,586,605 Percentage 51.52% 47.01%
County results Congressional district results State Senate district results Precinct resultsCooper:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Forest:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Tie:      40–50%
Governor before election Roy Cooper Democratic Elected Governor Roy Cooper Democratic

Elections in North Carolina
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v t e

The 2020 North Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the governor of North Carolina, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to one-third of the United States Senate and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Democratic incumbent Roy Cooper was re-elected to a second term, defeating Republican lieutenant governor Dan Forest. Cooper became the first North Carolina governor to win re-election since Mike Easley in 2004. He also outperformed other Democrats on the ballot and was the only Democrat to win a gubernatorial race in a state carried by Donald Trump in 2020. With a margin of 4.51%, this election was the second closest of the 2020 gubernatorial election cycle after Puerto Rico and the closest in a U.S. state.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Roy Cooper, incumbent governor

Eliminated in primary

• Ernest T. Reeves, retired U.S. Army captain and perennial candidate

Polling

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Dan Forest, lieutenant governor of North Carolina

Eliminated in primary

• Holly Grange, state representative

Declined

• Pat McCrory, former governor of North Carolina
• Mark Meadows, former U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 11th congressional district, White House Chief of Staff

Endorsements

Executive branch officials

• Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States (2017–2021)

U.S. Representatives

• Mark Meadows, former (NC-11) and former White House Chief of Staff

Organizations

• Susan B. Anthony List

Polling

Results

Other candidates

Libertarian Party

Nominee

• Steven J. DiFiore, candidate for Charlotte City Council in 2017, factory lighting representative

Constitution Party

Nominee

• Al Pisano, chairman of the Constitution Party of North Carolina

General election

Predictions

Endorsements

U.S. presidents

• Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

State and local officials

• Pete Buttigieg, former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana (2012–2020)

Organizations

• Equality NC

Newspapers

• The Charlotte Observer
• Indy Week

U.S. presidents

• Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States (2017–2021)

U.S. executive branch officials

• Mark Meadows, White House Chief of Staff for Donald Trump and former U.S. Representative from North Carolina's 11th congressional district

Organizations

• Susan B. Anthony List

Debates

A debate between Cooper and Forest occurred 7:00 pm EDT, October 14, 2020.

Polling

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

with Holly Grange

with Phil Berger

with Pat McCrory

with Tim Moore

with Thom Tillis

Results

•   Republican — >15%
•   Republican — +12.5−15%
•   Republican — +10−12.5%
•   Republican — +7.5−10%
•   Republican — +5−7.5%
•   Republican — +2.5−5%
•   Republican — +0−2.5%
•   Democratic — +0−2.5%
•   Democratic — +2.5−5%
•   Democratic — +5−7.5%
•   Democratic — +7.5-10%
•   Democratic — +10−12.5%

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Jackson (largest city: Cullowhee)

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Lenoir (largest city: Kinston)
• Martin (largest city: Williamston)

By congressional district

Despite winning a majority of the popular vote, Cooper only won 5 of 13 congressional districts.

Analysis

Voter demographics

Voter demographic data was collected by CNN. The voter survey is based on exit polls. There were 4,557 total respondents.

See also

• 2020 North Carolina elections
• 2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election

Notes

Partisan clients

1. Compete Everywhere primarily supports Democratic candidates
2. Poll sponsored by Piedmont Rising, a pro-Affordable Care Act organization.
3. This poll's sponsor, AFSCME, had endorsed Biden prior to the sampling period
4. Poll sponsored by the North Carolina Republican Party

General

1. ^ Key:
   A – all adults
   RV – registered voters
   LV – likely voters
   V – unclear
2. DiFiore (L) with 2%; Pisano (C) with 0%
3. DiFiore (L) with 2%; Pisano (C) with 1%
4. With voters who lean towards a given candidate
5. "Someone else" with 1%
6. DiFiore (L) with 3%; Pisano (C) with 1%; "Other" with 0%; "None of these" with no voters; Undecided with 1%
7. With voters who lean towards a given candidate
8. "Refused" and "Some other candidate" with 1%; Did/would not vote with 0%; Undecided with no voters
9. DiFiore (L) with 3%; Pisano (C) with 1%; Undecided with 4%
10. "Other" with 0%; Undecided with 1%
11. Undecided with 6%
12. DiFiore (L), Pisano (C) and would not vote with 1%; "Someone else" with 0%; "Undecided/Refused" with 4%
13. "Someone else" and Undecided with 3%
14. DiFiore (L) with 2%; Pisano (C) with 1%
15. "Other" with 2%; Undecided with 4%
16. "Another candidate" with 0%; Did not vote with no voters; Undecided with 3%
17. DiFiore (L) with 1%; Pisano (C) with 0%; Undecided with 4%
18. DiFiore (L) with 2%; Pisano (C) with 1%; Undecided with 13%
19. "Some other candidate" and would/did not vote with 1%; "Refused" with 0%; Undecided with 1%
20. Undecided with 4%
21. DiFiore (L) with 1%; Pisano (C), "Someone else" and Undecided with 0%
22. DiFiore (L) with 2%; Pisano (C) with 1%; "Someone else" and would not vote with 0%; "Undecided/Refused" with 9%
23. DiFiore (L) and "No one" with 1%; Pisano (C) with 0%; "Other candidate" with no voters; Undecided with 3%
24. With a likely voter turnout model featuring high turnout
25. "Other" with 1%; Undecided with 2%
26. With a likely voter turnout model featuring low turnout
27. "Other" with 1%; Undecided with 2%
28. "Some other candidate" with 2%; Undecided with 8%
29. DiFiore (L) with 3%; Undecided with 9%
30. Undecided with 8%
31. "Some other candidate" with 2%; would not vote with 0%; Undecided with 4%
32. "Another candidate" with 0%; Undecided with 4%
33. DiFiore (L) with 2%; Pisano (C) with 1%; Undecided with 8%
34. DiFiore (L) and Pisano (C) with 1%; Undecided with 12%
35. Pisano (C) with 2%; DiFiore (L) with 1%; "Someone else" and would not vote with 0%; "Undecided/Refused" with 7%
36. "Another Third Party/Write-in" with 2%; Undecided with 7%
37. DiFiore (L) with 5%; Pisano (C) with 1%; "Other" and "Refused" with 0%; Undecided with 6%
38. "Another candidate" with 3%; Undecided with 7%
39. DiFiore (L) with 1%; "None of these" and Pisano (C) with 0%; "Other" with no voters; Undecided with 1%
40. DiFiore (L) with 2%; "None of these" with 1%; "Other" and Pisano (C) with 0%; Undecided with 2%
41. "Neither/Another Party" with 1% "Undecided/Don't know/Refused" with 12%
42. "Another Third Party/Write-in" with 2%; Undecided with 9%
43. DiFiore (L) with 3%; "No one" and Pisano (C) with 1%; "Other candidate" with 0%; Undecided with 3%
44. With a likely voter turnout model featuring higher turnout than in the 2016 presidential election
45. ^ "Other" with 5%; Undecided with 2%
46. With a likely voter turnout model featuring lower turnout than in the 2016 presidential election
47. "Some other candidate" with 2%; Would not vote with 0%; Undecided with 8%
48. "Third party/write-in" with 2%; Undecided with 9%
49. "Some other candidate" with 3%; would not vote with 1%; Undecided with 7%
50. Undecided with 7%
51. DiFiore (L) and Pisano (C) with 1%; Undecided with 11%
52. Undecided with 5%
53. Pisano (C) with 0.9%, DiFiore (L) with 0.7%; Undecided with 5.9%
54. "Third party/write-in" with 1%; Undecided with 11%
55. "Other" with 0%; Undecided with 4%
56. Undecided with 3.7%; DiFore with 0.5%; Pisano with 0.4%
57. Undecided with 8%; "Some other candidate" with 5%
58. Undecided with 10%
59. Undecided with 10%; "Another candidate" with 1%; would not vote with 0%
60. Undecided with 14%; "Third party/write-in" with 3%
61. Undecided with 11%
62. Undecided with 13%; Pisano (C) with 1%; DiFiore (L) with 0%
63. Undecided with 13%

References

1. @RoyCooperNC (December 5, 2019). "I've officially filed for re-election! Together, we've made real progress, but there is more work to be done. If you're with me, sign up to join our team → http://act.roycooper.com/join-our-team" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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External links

• "League of Women Voters of North Carolina". July 29, 2019. (state affiliate of the U.S. League of Women Voters)
• National Institute on Money in Politics; Campaign Finance Institute, "North Carolina 2019 & 2020 Elections", OpenSecrets
• Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association, "North Carolina", Voting & Elections Toolkits
• "North Carolina: Election Tools, Deadlines, Dates, Rules, and Links", Vote.org, Oakland, CA

Official campaign websites

• Roy Cooper (D) for Governor
• Steven J. DiFiore (L) for Governor
• Dan Forest (R) for Governor
• Al Pisano (C) for Governor

• North Carolina gubernatorial elections
• 2020 United States gubernatorial elections
• 2020 North Carolina elections
• November 2020 events in the United States