North Carolina voters have chosen Jewish Democrat Josh Stein as their governor in what has offered a rare glimmer of hope amid an election marked by repeated victories for the Republican party.

Stein, who will be North Carolina’s first Jewish governor, defeated his opponent Mark Robinson by earning 54.8 per cent of the vote. Robinson’s campaign took a hit when, in September, CNN reported that he had posted racist, misogynistic, pro-Nazi and antisemitic comments on a pornographic website.

Meanwhile, Stein centred his campaign on his lasting commitment to combating the opioid crisis and supporting women’s reproductive rights during his time as Attorney General. Stein also foregrounded his advocacy for environmental reform, having negotiated the largest coal ash clean-up in the USA and convincing power company Duke Energy to pay for remediation rather than charge more than $1 billion in energy costs to its electricity customers.

“Tonight the people of North Carolina resoundingly embraced a vision that’s optimistic, forward-looking and welcoming, a vision that’s about creating opportunity for every North Carolinian,” Stein said in his victory speech on Tuesday. “We chose hope over hate, competence over chaos, decency over division.”

Stein, 58, is the son of lifelong activist Jane Stein and renowned civil rights attorney Adam Stein, whose firm was responsible for persuading the US Supreme Court to order desegregation in schools in the city of Charlotte.

The first Jewish person to win a statewide election in North Carolina when he was made Attorney General in 2016, Stein is reportedly active in Temple Beth Or in Raleigh, a Reform synagogue, and has spoken openly about his Judaism. According to JTA, he once coached a kids’ JCC soccer team.

While he has not centred his campaign on the issue of Israel, he has generally aligned with the position taken by President Joe Biden in his support for Israel’s right to self-defence and support for a two-state solution. After October 7, Stein wrote in a letter of solidarity to the Asheville, NC Jewish community: “Dates like December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001, are etched in our minds forever as Americans. Now, October 7, 2023, will forever be indelibly marked in the hearts of Israelis,” he wrote. He ended the letter by saying: “We stand with Israel.”

Stein will take over in January from two-term Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.