After a run-off election on Tuesday, North Carolina now has two Republican nominees who will face off against their Democratic opponents for lieutenant governor and state auditor in November.
In the race for lieutenant governor, Hal Weatherman of Wake Forest won the second primary against Winston-Salem’s Jim O’Neill, who currently serves as Forsyth County’s district attorney.
By Wednesday morning, with 99.2 percent of precincts reporting in, Weatherman had won 74.4 percent of the vote. Weatherman will face Democrat Rachel Hunt in November.
While Weatherman had not posted about his victory on social media as of Wednesday afternoon, he had posted several times on his Facebook leading up to Tuesday, including resharing a video from current Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, who voted for Weatherman. Robinson is the Republican nominee for governor and will face Democrat Josh Stein in November.
As TCB reported in the past, Weatherman founded the Electoral Education Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to election integrity and was chief of staff for former Lt. Gov. Dan Forest. Before that he worked for Forest’s mother, former Charlotte mayor and US Rep. Sue Myrick, an early member of the Tea Party Caucus in the 2000s. He also served on staff for former Rep. Madison Cawthorn.
He calls himself a “principled limited government conservative — fiscal and social” whose main goal as lieutenant governor is to “remove the stigma our society has placed on working in the trades.” He also wants to elevate NC agriculture to the global market, establish continual monitoring of the State Board of Elections and pass a “Heartbeat Bill” outlawing all abortions. He is anti-union. He also wants to create a North Carolina Hall of Fame.
O’Neill, who also did not post on social media about the results, was first appointed as Forsyth County district attorney in 2009 and elected three times. He has few policy positions on his website save that he is against casinos and wants to extend police officers to private and faith-based schools.
A prosecutor, he is tough on crime but also recognizes the connection between mental health, addiction and crime. As Forsyth DA, he presided over the death of John Neville in the Forsyth County Jail, in which he charged the corrections officers and a nurse. Ultimately, a grand jury indicted the nurse, but not the officers involved.
In 2023, O’Neill dropped the involuntary manslaughter charges against the nurse. No one was held criminally responsible for Neville’s death. He is head coach for Reynolds High School lacrosse team.
In the race for state auditor, the results were a little closer.
In the end, Dave Boliek of Fayetteville won out against Jack Clark of Raleigh by about six percentage points to win the nomination. Boliek garnered 53.3 percent of the vote to Clark’s 46.7 percent. Boliek will face Democrat Jessica Holmes in November.
A former Democrat, Boliek is a fiscal conservative and traditional Christian who currently serves on the UNC Board of Trustees, and formerly served as the chairman from 2021-23, notably during the Nikole Hannah-Jones controversy.
NC Newsline reported that Boliek was just one of four of the 13 members of the board to vote “no” when it came to granting tenure to Hannah-Jones.
From 1998-2001, Boliek worked as an assistant district attorney in Cumberland County. After leaving, he worked in private practice, with success working “with DMV regulations, ABC regulations and consulting on health care matters,” according to his campaign website.
On Facebook, Boliek thanked his friends and family for their support.
“First, I’d like to thank my ever-patient family, especially my wonderful wife Haden, for supporting and keeping me going through this campaign,” he posted around midnight on Wednesday. “I’m honored and humbled that thousands of voters I’ve met as I campaigned across our great state trusted me to be the Republican nominee for State Auditor in 2024. For the next six months, we will continue to take our message of making North Carolina’s state government effective, efficient, and accountable to taxpayers to every corner of our state. Thank you!”
Jack Clark, one of the youngest candidates this election season at 32 years old, attended Duke where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics. He went on to work as an external auditor for Grant Thornton and currently works on budget policy in the General Assembly.
Clark had not posted an update on social media as of Wednesday.
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