Two Republicans seek to be Lt. Governor. What they told us about why they want the job

The Republican primary for lieutenant governor isn’t over yet. There’s a runoff election on May 14 between the two top vote-getters: Hal Weatherman and Jim O’Neill.

Getting voters to turn out for a second GOP primary leaves mostly just the party faithful heading to the ballot box, according to longtime Republican operatives.

“These things are very difficult to get people to come out and vote to,” said Dallas Woodhouse, the former executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party. “This type of race, it really is the grassroots kind of thing, when you’re talking about what, 25-50,000 people voting?”

The job duties of the lieutenant governor make a short list, but one responsibility, breaking ties in the Senate, is a big one when it comes to party control of the legislature.

“It’s an important race in that it’s a tie-breaker of a 50-50 Senate,” said Stephen Wiley, head of the House Republican Caucus. He said that while the lieutenant governor is the second-ranking statewide elected official on paper, the attorney general role gets more attention because the lieutenant governor has few official obligations.

Both jobs can, but don’t always, lead to the governor’s mansion. Most recent governors have been either attorneys general or lieutenant governors.

Woodhouse, who is now the state director of conservative group American Majority, said he’s seen Weatherman out campaigning more than O’Neill, and those campaign stops can be enough to give you the edge.

“I think the lieutenant governor’s race is unlike any other race, right? It doesn’t have a natural constituency. It doesn’t necessarily have you know, important ties to the business community or something. And so if you can win the hearts and the minds of the grassroots, you have a pretty good shot,” Woodhouse said.

Neither candidate had more than 30% of the vote in the March primary, which triggered the second primary. Weatherman came in first with more than 181,000 votes, or 19.5%. O’Neill received about 147,000 votes, or 15.8%.

Here’s what Weatherman and O’Neill are saying about why they should have Republicans’ votes.

Hal Weatherman: From staff to candidate, and in the field

Weatherman has spent more than a year on the campaign trail, getting his name out there with local Republican clubs. He’s already known by loyal party members, given he is the former chief of staff to former Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, ran Forest’s unsuccessful campaign for governor in 2020, and previously worked for former U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, who is Forest’s mother. He also had a brief stint on the staff of defeated former U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn.

Weatherman, who lives in Wake Forest, spoke to The News & Observer as he returned from yet another campaign event on the road, this time in Haywood and Rutherford counties in Western North Carolina. He had also just had lunch with his former boss, Forest.

When Forest lost to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in the 2020 gubernatorial election, because Weatherman ran Forest’s campaign, he felt it was his loss, too. Forest has endorsed Weatherman, and Weatherman compared Forest’s support to that of a brother.

Weatherman’s job as chief of staff to Forest ended when Forest’s term was up, too.

Weatherman, 54, said he is not “ashamed” of taking a job offered by Cawthorn after Forest lost, but called it “politically, clearly not a good move in my life. Clearly.”

Weatherman said he’s old enough to be Cawthorn’s father, thinks he is a good man and that he was glad to be there for him. Cawthorn lost his Republican primary — after various scandals throughout his single term in office — to now-U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, who went on to win the election.

“I needed a job. And when you lose, like it’s not like your phone’s ringing off the hook. So Madison was very gracious and offered me a job which I needed, and I took a lesser job, and I was his district director. ... I took a lesser job to put food on the table for my family. And I’m not ashamed of that.”

Weatherman said he decided to run for office now because he felt it was God’s will, just as he felt that way working for the Myrick family. He said he and his wife discussed the idea of him running 16 months ago when Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson chose to run for governor instead of reelection.

“No big fanfare or anything: we just hit the road,” Weatherman said. He said he’s been campaigning the same way he ran Forest’s successful 2012 campaign for lieutenant governor, out meeting voters.

Weatherman said as lieutenant governor, he wants to “remove the stigma that our society has put on men and women who work with their hands, that work in the trades. I’m passionate about that.”

He said he wants to create a new career and degree path for students: spending two years learning a trade in community college before transferring into a UNC System school. He hopes the result would give them “all the tools to be an entrepreneur and run their own business, but it’s coupled with a skill set, like the trades.”

Weatherman, who has bachelor’s and master’s degrees, said he’s not against college but “I believe we are pushing still, our kids, future generations into a four-year degree system that may or may not be in their best interest to do as we move forward.”

Jim O’Neill: Spotlighting focus as DA, crime issues

In many ways, O’Neill already has the name recognition Weatherman has been working for in this campaign, since O’Neill already holds elected office and previously ran for statewide office. O’Neill is in his fourth term as the district attorney of Forsyth County. He also ran for attorney general in 2020, losing narrowly to current Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein. Stein is running for governor.

In an interview with The N&O, O’Neill, 58, talked about his work as district attorney and his focus on crime and community safety if he wins the runoff.

“I think it’s worthwhile that we have somebody that has a dedicated interest in keeping people safe and communities safe, and the lieutenant governor’s position, as well as the attorney general’s position, provides you with that statewide platform. I have been endorsed by law enforcement over and over again,” O’Neill said.

He said he hopes his message is getting out through support for and from law enforcement.

O’Neill said the pendulum has swung on public support of law enforcement, from “a time where everybody loved law enforcement” to calls for defunding police departments. O’Neill said the latter “turned out to be a disaster. And it has made our communities less safe.” He said it has taken a toll on recruitment for law enforcement officers.

He said that salaries are part of recruiting, but in such a dangerous job, people choose the career because it’s a calling and they want support. O’Neill said he would “remind people this is an honored and sacred profession.”

O’Neill also wants to focus on the fentanyl that has been smuggled over the border into the United States from Mexico. In his role as district attorney, he has worked on solving problems related to drug addiction, from overdoses to crime carried out because of someone’s addiction.

Lieutenant governor sits on boards of education, community colleges

North Carolina’s lieutenant governor doesn’t have a lot of responsibilities by design. They can preside over the Senate as Senate president, but only vote in the case of a tie. And Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger has presided over the Senate for the vast majority of time during the tenures of at least the past two lieutenant governors.

Both Weatherman and O’Neill said they plan to fulfill the lieutenant governor’s duties if they go on to win the general election, including presiding over the Senate. The lieutenant governor also sits on the State Board of Education and State Board of Community Colleges, as well as the Council of State.

Both Republican candidates said they support community colleges as a path for those who don’t want to pursue four-year colleges.

They also said they support school choice.

That’s been a major issue as lawmakers have debated plans related to funding traditional public schools, regulating charter schools and expanding access to private school vouchers.

Weatherman has three children — one in college, one in a charter school and one home-schooled. He previously served on the board of a charter school, Wake Prep.

“I want all people to have that same choice, regardless of what is it. I think that’s one of the worst things that we can do as a society, is to limit the educational choices of our people based on what ZIP code they live in. ... I really think that our schools need to get back to basics,” Weatherman said.

O’Neill feels similarly about families choosing schools.

“Parents have to feel that their children are going to places that are providing them with an education that’s going to help promote them in life. And so if there are alternatives, if there are private schools or charter schools that do a better job — and a parent has a desire to send their children there, I think we should support them,” O’Neill said. “We should support our parents — I think our parents know what’s best for their own children. There’s not a one-size-fits-all for every child.”

O’Neill said he grew up in public schools and has been a lacrosse coach at a Forsyth County public school, R.J. Reynolds High School, for the past 20 years. O’Neill has young children, and they are in a mix of public and private schools, he said.

He said a recent viral video at a Winston-Salem school of a teacher being assaulted in the classroom was hard to watch, and it has reinforced that “our teachers, much like our law enforcement: we have to take care of them.”

O’Neill wants teachers to feel safe at their jobs, and said he wants to continue to create an environment that is safe and secure for both teachers and students.

O’Neill’s campaign website calls for expanding school resource officers to private schools. O’Neill told The N&O there’s a way to do that by having the schools, rather than taxpayers, fund the program and be able to join it.

Weatherman thinks the issues public school teachers face include teaching to the test, student discipline and being over-regulated. He said the teacher shortage can be addressed by accounting for and allowing more lateral-entry teachers, those who come from a different profession than education.

Weatherman said that after he retires, he’d like to be a civics teacher and a basketball and cross country coach. He said he wants both teachers and law enforcement to “be fairly compensated.”

What Weatherman and O’Neill say about each other

Neither O’Neill or Weatherman refer to each other by name, just “my opponent.”

“My opponent has spent his whole career in politics,” O’Neill said. “I have not. We’re different. I’m on the front lines. I’m trying to keep people safe. Trying to keep our schools safe.”

Weatherman said that he hasn’t heard O’Neill speak at any event, so didn’t offer any difference between them.

“Because with no exaggeration, I had been on the road for 15 straight months, usually five weeks, six days a week for 15 straight months. ... I just know that I’m out there traveling. What I hear from other people is that ‘you’re everywhere.,’ ... And I tell people, I’m interviewing for the job. Because you don’t work for me, I work for you,” Weatherman said.

Current Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has endorsed Weatherman.

Wiley, the Republican operative, said that Weatherman is well known on the local Republican “chicken dinner” circuit, more so than O’Neill, and that could be enough for some Republican voters.

“Whereas like, O’Neill has the added benefit of being on the ballot statewide, twice before in 2020 in the Republican primary and then statewide in 2020,” Wiley said, so voters already have some familiarity with him.

The winner of the GOP primary will face state Sen. Rachel Hunt, who won the Democratic nomination in March.