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North Carolina Secretary of State election, 2016
2020 →
← 2012
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March 15, 2016[1] |
November 8, 2016 |
Elaine Marshall (D) |
Elaine Marshall (D) |
Governor • Lt. Governor Secretary of State • Attorney General Down Ballot Auditor • Insurance Commissioner Agriculture Commissioner Superintendent of Schools • Treasurer Labor Commissioner |
December 21, 2015 |
March 15, 2016[2] |
June 9, 2016 |
July 26, 2016 |
November 8, 2016 |
January 7, 2017 |
North Carolina held an election for secretary of state on November 8, 2016. Incumbent Elaine Marshall (D) won re-election to a sixth term.
Overview
The North Carolina secretary of state heads the Department of the State, which oversees many of the economic and business-related operations of the state government. Unlike in many states, the secretary of state does not oversee state elections. North Carolina has been under Republican trifecta control since Governor Pat McCrory (R) assumed office in 2013. This represented a fairly rapid shift in partisan control for the state, which had been under Democratic trifecta control as recently as 2010. A Republican has not won election to the office of secretary of state in North Carolina since 1872.
Incumbent Elaine Marshall (D) sought re-election to a sixth term in office. She was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Consultant Michael LaPaglia (R) defeated former Lottery Commissioner AJ Daoud (R) in the March 15 Republican primary election. LaPaglia and Marshall competed in the November 8 general election. Marshall won the general election on November 8, 2016.
Candidates
General election candidates
Elaine Marshall (D)
Incumbent secretary of state since 1996
Michael LaPaglia (R)
Consultant
| Click [show] to view candidates who were defeated in the primary elections. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Results
General election
Incumbent Elaine Marshall defeated Michael LaPaglia in the North Carolina secretary of state election.
| North Carolina Secretary of State, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Elaine Marshall Incumbent |
52.22% | 2,339,783 | |
| Republican | Michael LaPaglia | 47.78% | 2,141,132 | |
| Total Votes | 4,480,915 | |||
| Source: ABC11 | ||||
Primary elections
Democratic primary election
Elaine Marshall (D) was the only Democrat to file for the election; she automatically advanced to the general election.
Republican primary election
| North Carolina Secretary of State Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | ||
| Michael LaPaglia |
61.6% | 499,919 | ||
| A. J. Daoud | 38.4% | 312,067 | ||
| Total Votes | 811,986 | |||
| Election results via North Carolina State Board of Elections. | ||||
Context of the 2016 election
Primary elections
A primary election is an election in which voters select the candidate they believe should represent a political party in a general election. Primaries usually take place several months before a general election. North Carolina utilizes a hybrid primary system. Parties decide who may vote in their respective primaries. Voters may choose a primary ballot without impacting their unaffiliated status.[4]
In North Carolina, when more than two candidates run in a primary election and one candidate does not receive more than 40 percent of the vote, the second-place candidate can request a runoff primary, sometimes referred to as a second primary. However, because of the redrawing of congressional and state legislative district boundaries, state executive elections in 2016 did not feature a runoff primary. This means the 2016 primary elections for state executives were unique and particularly competitive in that the winning candidate automatically received the party nomination regardless of the percentage of votes received.
North Carolina's primary elections took place on March 15, 2016.
Incumbent Elaine Marshall (D)
Incumbent Sec. of State Elaine Marshall (D) was first elected in 1996 and has easily won re-election every four years since. Prior to her tenure in the Department of State, Marshall served one term in the state Senate.
Party control in North Carolina
North Carolina had been under Republican trifecta control since Governor Pat McCrory (R) assumed office in 2013. This represented a fairly rapid shift in partisan control for the state, which had been under Democratic trifecta control as recently as 2010. North Carolina's electoral votes went to the Republican presidential candidate in every election cycle since 1980, with the exception of 2008 when the state voted to elect Barack Obama (D).[5] North Carolina began attracting significant attention as a presidential battleground state with Obama's unexpected 2008 win in the state—the first Democratic candidate to do so since Jimmy Carter (D) in 1976. For the past two presidential elections, the state's presidential preference influenced statewide elections. This influence, coupled with the recent trend of close elections in the state, promised competitive races in 2016.
Both Republican and Democratic candidates gained success in recent elections. Democrat Bev Perdue won the gubernatorial election and Democrat Kay Hagan defeated incumbent Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole in 2008. The state swung back to Republicans in 2012 when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney narrowly beat President Obama by a margin of 2 percentage points. McCrory defeated his Democratic rival by a small margin of victory that same year. The trend of close statewide elections in North Carolina continued into 2014: Republican Thom Tillis narrowly defeated incumbent Senator Kay Hagan (D) in a statewide race that year, earning 48.8 percent of the vote to Hagan's 47.3 percent.[6]
A Republican has not won election to the office of secretary of state in North Carolina since William H. Howerton in 1872.[7] Only four people have held the office since 1926, all Democrats—Thad Eure from 1936 to 1989, Rufus Edmisten from 1989 to 1996, Janice Faulker in 1996, and Elaine Marshall from 1997 to present.[8][7]
Race background
Candidate field
Incumbent Elaine Marshall (D) ran unopposed in the March 15 Democratic primary election. Marshall had pointed to the office's success under her purview, stating that she embraced new technologies, modernized the office, and advocated for government transparency.[9] The Department of State is charged with consumer and investor protection; Marshall's campaign website stated that her administration "has returned over one billion dollars to people who have been defrauded with bogus securities."[10]
Republicans AJ Daoud and Michael LaPaglia competed for the Republican nomination; LaPaglia defeated Doaud in the primary election.
Daoud is the chairman of the NCGOP 6th district and was a 2012 Republican candidate for secretary of state, losing his party's nomination to Ed Goodwin in the primary election. Daoud also served as lottery commissioner from 2013 to 2015; he was appointed to the post by Gov. Pat McCrory (R).[11] Daoud claimed that Marshall had not done enough to help small businesses in the state; the economy was a key issue in his campaign.[12] Daoud lost the March 15 primary to Michael LaPaglia.
LaPaglia is a consultant and entrepreneur. LaPaglia had based his campaign on small government, describing himself as a "limited government free-enterprise advocate."[13] His campaign website asserted that less government intervention and fewer regulations would allow business to thrive in the state.[13]
Marshall won the general election on November 8, 2016.
Campaigns
Campaign finance
| Elaine Marshall Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| 2015 Year End Semi-Annual | July 12, 2016 | $35,379.6 | $39,954.01 | $(31,784.36) | $43,549.25 | ||||
| 2016 First Quarter | July 14, 2016 | $43,549.25 | $14,011 | $(10,773.98) | $46.786.27 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $53,965.01 | $(42,558.34) | ||||||||
| AJ Daoud Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| 2015 Year End Semi-Annual | January 29, 2016 | $2,422.36 | $50,811.94 | $(1,894.52) | $51,339.78 | ||||
| 2016 First Quarter | March 7, 2016 | $51,339.78 | $11,807.19 | $(11,665.08) | $51,481.89 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $62,619.13 | $(13,559.6) | ||||||||
| Michael LaPaglia Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| 2015 Year End Semi-Annual | January 29, 2016 | $0 | $1,945.25 | $(1,869.94) | $75.31 | ||||
| 2016 First Quarter | August 29, 2916 | $75.31 | $5,050 | $(1,938.23) | $3,187.08 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $6,995.25 | $(3,808.17) | ||||||||
Endosements
| Key endorsements, Republican primary candidates | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AJ Daoud | Michael LaPaglia | ||||||||
| Winston Salem Journal | Republican Liberty Caucus of North Carolina | ||||||||
| Charlotte Observer | |||||||||
| What is a key endorsement? | |||||||||
Campaign media
Note: If a candidate is not listed below, Ballotpedia staff were unable to locate any campaign media for that candidate. Do you know of any? Tell us!
Democrats
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Republicans
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About the office
The secretary of state for North Carolina is a publicly elected official for the state of North Carolina who heads the Department of the State, which oversees many of the economic and business-related operations of the state government. Unlike in many states, the secretary of state does not oversee state elections.
Incumbent
The incumbent was Democrat Elaine Marshall. Marshall, first elected in 1996, is the first woman to be elected North Carolina Secretary of State and the first woman elected to statewide executive office in North Carolina. Her current term expires in 2017.
Authority
The state Constitution establishes the office of secretary of state in Article III, Section 7:
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(1) Officers. A Secretary of State, an Auditor, a Treasurer, a Superintendent of Public Instruction, an Attorney General, a Commissioner of Agriculture, a Commissioner of Labor, and a Commissioner of Insurance shall be elected by the qualified voters of the State in 1972 and every four years thereafter, at the same time and places as members of the General Assembly are elected. Their term of office shall be four years and shall commence on the first day of January next after their election and continue until their successors are elected and qualified. ... |
Qualifications
Article VI, Section 6 of the North Carolina Constitution establishes the qualifications of the office:
| Every qualified voter in North Carolina who is 21 years of age, except as in this Constitution disqualified, shall be eligible for election by the people to office. |
- qualified North Carolina voter
- 21 years of age
Past elections
2012
Incumbent Elaine Marshall (D) successfully won re-election, defeating Ed Goodwin (R) in the November 6, 2012 general election.
| North Carolina Secretary of State General Election, 2012 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Elaine Marshall Incumbent |
53.8% | 2,331,173 | |
| Republican | Ed Goodwin | 46.2% | 2,003,026 | |
| Total Votes | 4,334,199 | |||
| Election results via NC State Board of Elections | ||||
To view the full electoral history for North Carolina Secretary of State, click [show] to expand the full section. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms North Carolina secretary of state election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
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North Carolina government: |
Previous elections: |
Ballotpedia exclusives: |
State profile
| Demographic data for North Carolina | ||
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 10,035,186 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 48,618 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 69.5% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 21.5% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 2.5% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 1.2% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 2.4% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 8.8% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 85.8% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 28.4% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $46,868 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 20.5% | 11.3% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in North Carolina. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
Presidential voting pattern
North Carolina voted Republican in six out of the seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.
Pivot Counties (2016)
Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, six are located in North Carolina, accounting for 2.91 percent of the total pivot counties.[14]
Pivot Counties (2020)
In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. North Carolina had six Retained Pivot Counties, 3.31 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.
More North Carolina coverage on Ballotpedia
- Elections in North Carolina
- United States congressional delegations from North Carolina
- Public policy in North Carolina
- Endorsers in North Carolina
- North Carolina fact checks
- More...
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The primary for U.S. congressional elections was rescheduled to June 7, 2016, following legal challenges to North Carolina's district maps. State races were unaffected.
- ↑ The primary for U.S. congressional elections was rescheduled to June 7, 2016, following legal challenges to North Carolina's district maps. State races were unaffected.
- ↑ Ballotpedia, "AJ Daoud," accessed December 22, 2015
- ↑ NC Election Connection, "Who Can Vote in Which Elections?" accessed January 3, 2014
- ↑ National Archives and Records Administration, "Historical Election Results," accessed September 15, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "11/04/2014 Official General Election Results - Statewide," accessed August 30, 2015
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Our Campaigns, "Secretary of State - History," accessed September 16, 2016
- ↑ Orlando Sentinel, "N. Carolina Appoints Its 1st Female Secretary Of State," March 30, 1996
- ↑ [http://www.elainemarshall.com/ Elaine Marshall, accessed March 13, 2016
- ↑ [http://www.elainemarshall.com/about-elaine/ Elaine Marshall, "About Elaine," accessed March 13, 2016
- ↑ The Avery Journal-Times, "Primary Focus: NC Secretary of State," February 18, 2016
- ↑ News & Observer, "Republican challenges NC Secretary of State Elaine Marshall," accessed December 22, 2015
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Michael LaPaglia, "Meet Michael," accessed March 13, 3016
- ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
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