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This explainer is based on original reporting by Carli Brosseau.
As Republican Mark Robinson grapples with major scandals that threaten to sink his candidacy for governor, the situation has put his current job as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor in the spotlight.
Many are openly wondering how Robinson managed to win the state’s second-highest political office four years ago without any of this coming to light.
The reason has more to do with the office than anything else. It’s a position that has been described as “the least-powerful elected official in North Carolina.” As a result, past contenders have been some of the state’s least-scrutinized candidates.
To better understand why, here are five things to know about the role of North Carolina’s lieutenant governor.
What are the qualifications to be lieutenant governor in North Carolina?
The state constitution lists the same basic requirements for governor and lieutenant governor:
No person shall be eligible for election to the office of Governor or Lieutenant Governor unless, at the time of his election, he shall have attained the age of 30 years and shall have been a citizen of the United States for five years and a resident of this State for two years immediately preceding his election.
Unlike other statewide offices in North Carolina, serving as lieutenant governor requires no specialized knowledge.
That was part of the appeal to former Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who had never held elected office before his 2012 run. An architect by trade, he said he felt that God was calling him to serve.
“When I decided to run for lieutenant governor, I didn’t even really know exactly what the lieutenant governor did,” he said.
Former legislators have often occupied the lieutenant governor’s office. But as Robinson and Forest demonstrated, voters can be persuaded that being an outsider in Raleigh is an asset.
What does North Carolina’s lieutenant governor do?
The state constitution lays out a short list of responsibilities, which include: presiding over the Senate, but voting only to break a tie; serving on the State Board of Education; and “such additional duties as the General Assembly or the Governor may assign to him.”
In recent years, not all that much has been assigned—not even to Forest when he served with a Republican governor and Republican-led General Assembly.
Legislators have given the lieutenant governor a seat on a handful of boards and the power to make a few appointments. Last year, lawmakers even debated reducing the office’s influence further, stripping away the lieutenant governor’s seat on the community college governance board before restoring it.
Is this normal? Has it always been like this?
The role of lieutenant governor varies by state.
In Texas, for example, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick dominates the legislative agenda and is often described as that state’s most powerful politician.
North Carolina is among 17 states where the governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately, rather than on a shared ticket. The General Assembly stripped away the office’s most substantial powers in the late 1980s, when a Republican was elected to the role for the first time since Reconstruction, putting the Democrats’ long-held control of state machinery in doubt.
Now, “it’s sort of an office in search of a purpose,” said Chris Cooper, political science professor at Western Carolina University and author of the forthcoming book Anatomy of a Purple State.
Why run for an office with so little authority?
To judge by the number of hopefuls in this year’s primary, no elected post in North Carolina is more desirable. Fifteen people filed to run in 2024: 11 Republicans, three Democrats, and one Libertarian. The long list even included a Mark H. Robinson (not to be confused with the current lieutenant governor, whose middle initial is K).
The field was crowded in the last cycle, too. Six Democrats sought the nomination, while Robinson emerged victorious from a field of nine.
In both years, there was no incumbent to run against, surely explaining some of the interest. But is there more to it?
The lieutenant governor’s office offers one big advantage: the bully pulpit.
Robinson has showcased that over the last four years, using it to speak out on topics like LGBTQ rights, abortion, and public schools.
Even the Democrat hoping to take his seat acknowledged Robinson has wielded his limited power to great effect. “He’s certainly elevated his standing in the entire country,” said state Sen. Rachel Hunt. “Everybody knows who he is.”
Many of this year’s candidates seemed to view the independence and slim portfolio of the lieutenant governor’s office as a main draw. The few formal powers are paired with “unlimited influence,” said Hal Weatherman, this year’s Republican nominee for the office.
How else has the office evolved in recent years?
Forest attributed the expansive field of hopefuls the past two election cycles to his own work elevating the office’s profile.
Forest’s first campaign, with Weatherman by his side, stretched for two years. Then he served for eight, the maximum allowed.
“It seemed to be for a lot of other lieutenant governors almost a holding place or a resting place so that they could go on to the next thing,” Forest said. “But for us, we were focused on having a really solid agenda.”
He renovated the lieutenant governor’s mansion and pushed for renewal of the surrounding neighborhood, while assigning staffers to write bills and find legislators willing to introduce them. He also sued Gov. Roy Cooper over pandemic orders, making an argument about limiting the governor’s emergency powers that the General Assembly later acted on. (Forest lost the lawsuit.)
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