Council of State primary: liberal Truitt ousted but Dem plant wins Treasurer | Eastern NC Now

Republican primary results for statewide Council of State seats held both good and bad news for conservatives.  On the positive side, liberal incumbent Superintendant of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt was defeated by conservative Michelle Morrow who pledges to take "woke" out of public education by a vote of 52% to 48%.  Conservative labor lawyer Luke Farley defeated liberal Republican state legislator Jon Hardister and two other candidates for Commissioner of Labor.  Conservative incumbent Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey cruised to renomination with over 60% against two opponents.

The worst result on the Council of State was nominating a Democrat plant, Brad Briner to succeed conservative State Treasurer Dale Folwell.  Briner voted in the Democrat primary as late as 2020, and works in the financial network of major gun control advocate Michael Bloomberg.  He was recruited to run by operatives of liberal Republican Senate boss Phil Berger.  Briner finished below 40% and in past years would have had to face a runoff against a genuine Republican, but Berger and Speaker Tim Moore had the law changed in a sneaky last minute backroom manuever to allow candidates to escape a runoff by getting over a miniscule 30%.  Among other things, Briner has said he will return our state pension investments to his Wall Street buddies, and end Folwell's reform of handling them within his office, a reform that has saved our pension fund lots of money.

As expected liberal leaning incumbent Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler, who had served as chairman of Farmers for John Edwards in the campaign of liberal Democrat trial lawyer John Edwards for US Senate some years ago won renomination over the shoestring campaign of conservative farmer Colby Hammonds.  Another Berger recruit whose GOP credentials are highly questionable, Dave Boliek of Chapel Hill is in a runoff for State Auditor with Jack Clark, a young legislative staffer who is a CPA and has previously worked in auditing in the private sector, whose first place finish in the race surprised many.

For Lieutenant Governor, long presumed fronttunner, conservative Hal Weatherman, who served for eight years as Chief of Staff to former GOP Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, came in first, and will face a runoff with former Forsyth County DA Jim O'Neill.  O'Neill previously ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for Attorney General in a campaign quarterbacked by Thom Tillis' political consultant Paul Shumaker.