North Carolina Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor Josh Stein visited Chapel Hill on Thursday, swinging by UNC’s campus to launch a new effort in his campaign focused on college students.
The rally, held in The Pit during a drizzly afternoon, was organized in partnership with several student political advocacy groups. The Students for Stein coalition aims to be a vehicle for different college organizations across North Carolina to have consistent messaging supporting the attorney general’s run for governor and help students be prepared to vote.
Stein, the Democratic frontrunner, spent time talking about his childhood growing up in Chapel Hill before turning his attention to criticizing the Republican frontrunning candidate, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
“Robinson vilifies LGBTQ folks as filth,” he said to boos. “He says the Holocaust is hogwash. He disrespects women, saying they are not called to lead.”
Stein highlighted his work in the AG’s office, citing the litigation that won North Carolina millions of dollars in settlements from opioid manufacturers and efforts to tackle a backlog of rape kits. He also pointed to efforts that specifically helped students and young adults, like suing a “predatory” student loan company and pushing for changes to transfer rules for college athletes. Some of the loudest cheers from the gathered students came when Stein talked about North Carolina’s Medicaid expansion, protecting abortion access, and enacting more gun safety measures.
Dozens of UNC students and community members gathered in The Pit to hear student speakers and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein speak on Thursday.
Josh Stein meets and takes photos with students after the rally in UNC’s Pit.
Sloan Duvall, a junior and the president of the UNC Young Democrats, said the issue of gun reform is top of mind for many at Carolina in the wake of August’s deadly shooting of a professor. She said Stein’s stance on the issue is in stark contrast to Robinson’s – who Duvall said insulted students like those who were locked down on campus this fall.
“He calls students gun violence victims pawns and paid actors,” she said of Robinson. “We had [school shooting survivor and activist] David Hogg on campus this fall… he has said really unthinkable things about Hogg and that’s something that really resonates with UNC students because it’s just so fresh for us. Josh Stein is not going to bow down to the Republicans in Raleigh. He’s going to use that veto pen [against legislation] and keep students safe.”
Duvall is one of several UNC students who are working on Stein’s election campaign. Beyond leading the campus chapter of Young Democrats, she’s the chair of Students for Stein and is planning other events on college campuses throughout the year. The coalition will work to help students prepare to vote at their school addresses and be aware of Stein’s policies.
“I think a lot of times we see students who are passionate about issues, who are passionate about candidates like Josh,” Duvall said, “but they don’t take the necessary steps to make sure they’re registered, to look up their polling location, to bring the necessary materials with them. For us on campus, it’s all about educating students [and] making sure they’re confident and empowered to get to the polls.”
Sloan Duvall speaks to the gathered people in UNC’s Pit on Thursday for the launch of Students for Stein.
Second-year UNC law student Patrick Bradey was in the crowd on Thursday, saying he’d heard about the event beforehand and came to hear Stein speak. He pointed to Republican lawmakers’ recent redistricting efforts to protect their supermajority in the state government as one reason he’s supporting the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.
“I really appreciate the attorney general’s work to date and campaign focus on gerrymandering and voting rights,” said Bradey. “We’re not going to have a government that works for us until they let us have a real hand in picking our government, right? And so, the work he’s doing to help protect our right to do that – and not just in this election, but in previous ones and future ones – is only going to become more important. It’s certainly not something Mark Robinson cares about.”
UNC is the latest stop at a North Carolina university for Stein’s campaign, who said more will come as the 2024 election cycle continues.
“Students have a critical voice in determining what kind of future we have in North Carolina and who wins,” Stein said before doing meet-and-greets with those gathered in The Pit. “Do we have a governor who will fight for them, or a governor who will fight the social wars that only serve to divide us?”
“When I do my work,” he added, “whether it’s fighting opioids or going after sexual abusers — it’s about helping people. Republicans, Democratic people, and unaffiliated [voters], they’re all victims of those crimes. So, if you work on issues that help people — like public schools, safe communities — those benefit everyone in the state.”
North Carolina’s primary election day is Tuesday, March 5, with early voting beginning on February 15.
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This former UNC-CH Wrestler & former UNC-CH Student Body President, who implemented – among other initiatives, Mass Transit throughout Campus – will fight for the UNC Student Vote in my 2024 Candidacy for Governor of the Great State of N.C.