A campaign committee that raised nearly $40 million to elect Democrats to Council of State positions provided no funding to three of the party’s candidates for those offices — who ultimately lost even as Josh Stein won the governor’s race in a landslide.
The N.C. Democratic Leadership Committee was formed under a 2015 state law that allows political parties to accept unlimited contributions through committees set up to elect its slate of Council of State candidates.
The committees give major donors an opportunity to write big checks to top-tier races instead of giving a more general donation to the state party organizations. Individual candidates’ campaigns can only accept donations of $6,400 or less per donor, but they can receive amounts of any size transferred from the Council of State committees.
A WUNC review of this year's campaign finance reports show the Democratic Leadership Committee directed more than 80% of its fundraising total to the campaigns of Stein and attorney general candidate Jeff Jackson. But it gave none to the campaigns of State Auditor Jessica Holmes, labor commissioner candidate Braxton Winston and agriculture commissioner candidate Sarah Taber.
The committee is managed by Nexus Strategies, the prominent Democratic consulting firm led by Morgan Jackson. Jackson led Gov. Roy Cooper’s campaigns for governor, and his firm handled Stein and Jackson’s campaigns this year.
Jackson, his partner Scott Falmlen and committee spokesman Dawson McNamara-Bloom did not respond to multiple emails from WUNC seeking an explanation for the committee’s funding decisions. Under state law, the committee is led by the highest-ranking member of the party currently serving on the Council of State — which is Cooper.
The committee received contributions from big out-of-state donors like former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gave $3.5 million, ultimately funneling a total of $29.6 million to Stein’s campaign.
Even after a bombshell CNN report on Republican candidate Mark Robinson made it clear to most observers that Stein would win, the committee sent multiple payments totaling about $7 million to his campaign in October.
Meanwhile, the committee’s GOP counterpart, the N.C. Republican Council of State Committee, stopped providing funding to Robinson’s campaign after the CNN report, its campaign finance report shows.
Instead, it continued to fund Congressman Dan Bishop’s campaign for attorney general, giving him a total of $4.7 million over the election cycle, as well as Hal Weatherman’s campaign for lieutenant governor.
In early October, the committee sent $100,000 each to the campaigns of Dave Boliek for state auditor and Luke Farley for labor commissioner. It did not provide financial support to Michele Morrow’s campaign for superintendent of public instruction.
But while some Republican candidates got a financial boost after the GOP began to abandon Robinson, the Democratic Leadership Committee didn’t provide any similar support to Winston or Holmes.
Boliek and Farley were able to run TV ads, while their Democratic opponents had far less money to get their message out, their campaign finance reports show.
Holmes, the first Black woman to serve on the Council of State, lost by about 2% of the vote, while Winston lost by about 5%. Only one of the four Black candidates running in statewide races, superintendent of public instruction candidate Mo Green, ultimately won.
Winston and Taber did not respond to requests for comment on the Democratic Leadership Committee’s funding snub. Holmes also would not comment.
The committee did, however, provide some funding to other downballot Democrats in the final weeks of the campaign. While the amounts were much smaller than those given to Stein and Jackson, lieutenant governor candidate Rachel Hunt got $600,000, Green got $500,000, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall got $250,000, insurance commissioner candidate Natasha Marcus got $47,000, and state treasurer candidate Wesley Harris got $10,000.
Hunt, Marshall and Green won their races, while Marcus and Harris lost.
In contrast to the Democratic Leadership Committee, campaign finance records show that all 10 Democrats running for Council of State positions got funding support from the state Democratic Party.
