Op-Ed: North Carolina's Zen governor
N.C. Gov. Josh Stein speaks to members of the media at Kipos Greek Taverna in Chapel Hill after flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
North Carolina’s Zen governor
by Rob Schofield, NC Newsline
September 9, 2025
The governor of North Carolina earns an annual salary of a little over $200,000 per year. While it’s only about a fifth or less of what the average partner in a big law firm can expect to bring home and a fiftieth what the football coach at the state’s flagship university rakes in, it’s still good money. In a state where the median household income is around only a third of that amount and millions subsist at or below the poverty line, for most people, getting a job with a 200k salary would feel like winning the lottery.
And yet, for the current inhabitant of the Governor’s Mansion – Democrat Josh Stein — it must feel at times like he’s in a job for which no salary could provide adequate compensation.
Consider for a moment how dramatically different Stein’s job is from, say, the one undertaken by Gov. Jim Hunt during the four terms he served between 1977-1985 and 1993-2001.
During Hunt’s 16 years in office, the governor dominated state politics. Even without the ability to veto bills – the governor only won that right after the constitution was amended during Hunt’s final term – Hunt enjoyed mostly good working relationships with the legislature (even during periods when the GOP controlled the state House), as well as congressional leaders and presidential administrations of both parties. His budgets and policy priorities – like the Smart Start initiative, dramatically boosting public education funding, and recovery plans from major hurricanes like Fran and Floyd — were approved by lawmakers with little question.
What a difference a quarter century makes.
While Stein was elected to office by a healthy margin last November and has remained extremely popular with voters ever since, his first months in office could not have been more different from what Hunt (and most other 20th Century governors) experienced.
Even before he took office in January, Republican legislative leaders attacked him repeatedly and personally and moved to reduce his powers. And even on issues that have traditionally led to bipartisan agreement like disaster relief, winning approval for any of his policies has been akin to pulling teeth.
And then, of course, there is the matter of President Trump and his minions in Congress. From Day One of his administration, Stein has found himself in an impossible situation on this front – especially when it comes to his top priority, Hurricane Helene recovery.
Whether telling lies about the situation on the ground in western North Carolina, working to abolish FEMA, or slashing funding for essential relief programs and other critical federal initiatives, Trump and company have made Stein’s job doubly difficult at every turn.
This situation reached a new low last week when Trump – faced with repeated requests from Stein for federal aid to speed the sluggish Helene recovery – went into full bully mode, blasting Stein’s requests as somehow showing that he is “unfit to run the state.”
It was classic Trump bluster – the kind of wild, fact-free and blame-deflecting claim that has long marked his public life and that would understandably provoke many a reasonable politician to respond with fire of their own.
Amazingly and impressively, however, through it all, Stein has refused to take the bait. Somewhat unlike his predecessor, Roy Cooper, who made public warring with the political right – particular GOP legislative leaders — a regular feature of his eight years in office, Stein continues to adhere to a course of remarkable, almost Zen-like, calm and civility.
In response to Trump’s outrageous broadside, Stein kept his cool and stuck to the facts — telling news outlets only that he is “grateful for the federal government’s support” and that the size of Congress’ appropriation to WNC is “simply not enough to get the job done, and it’s much less than what other states have received after similar catastrophic storms.”
That approach echoes how Stein has dealt with the Trumpian legislature since January. While, like Cooper, Stein has issued plenty of vetoes and voiced pointed disagreement on several occasions with the legislature’s actions and inactions, there’s been a notable difference in the volume and tone of how he’s gone about it, and he’s regularly looked for opportunities to extend olive branches to GOP leaders.
How much all of this represents a strategic decision on the part of a disciplined politician with hopes for a career in public service that could extend long after Donald Trump is gone, and how much it simply reflects his personality, is not entirely clear at this point.
Sometimes in politics, when you don’t have the votes to get what you want, you just don’t have the votes and must focus on what you can control. And whether, say, a Gov. Stein in 2029 would be able to continue to project the same chill persona if he were still battling hostile GOP supermajorities and personal attacks seems somewhat hard to imagine.
For now, though, Stein seems intent on sticking to a genteel approach that’s at odds with the rancorous times we inhabit. Would that it turns out to be contagious.
NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.
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