Josh Stein
Governor Josh Stein was called to public service by his faith and his family. His faith teaches him that we are all called to make a difference, and his parents Adam and Jane raised his brother Eric, sister Gerda, and him to try to do what is right. They grounded him in our shared values of freedom and opportunity for everyone.
As Governor, Stein’s focus will be on creating a safer, stronger North Carolina. He will bring people together to help western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene, create economic opportunity for all North Carolinians, invest in public schools, and keep people safe.
Stein spent the past eight years serving as North Carolina’s Attorney General. During that time, he and his team worked to clear the nation’s largest backlog of untested rape kits and hold accountable the big drug companies that created and fueled the opioid crisis, securing more than $50 billion in settlement funds, including nearly $1.5 billion for North Carolina to help people struggling with addiction. They held e-cigarette manufacturer Juul accountable for sparking a teen vaping epidemic – the first state in the country to do so – and protected vulnerable North Carolinians from fraudsters and scammers, including going after companies that price-gouged customers in the wake of natural disasters. Stein advocated for fully funding North Carolina’s public schools through the Leandro Plan and defended people’s right to vote and women’s right to choose.
Before his time as Attorney General, Stein served in the state Senate and was a champion for public education, clean energy, and public safety. Between 2001 and 2008, he served as senior deputy attorney general for consumer protection in the North Carolina Department of Justice, where he helped run the payday lenders charging loan shark interest rates out of the state and helped enhance people’s privacy protections.
Stein earned law and public policy degrees from Harvard University and graduated from Dartmouth College and Chapel Hill High School. After college, he taught high school English and economics in Zimbabwe for two years. As a young lawyer, Stein worked with the Self-Help Credit Union to develop affordable single-family homes in Durham and with the North Carolina Minority Support Center to raise capital to invest in small businesses across North Carolina.
Josh and his wife Anna live in Raleigh and are members of Temple Beth Or. They are the proud parents of Sam, Adam, and Leah, who all attended North Carolina public schools, just like they did.
