Tuesday’s second primary for two Republican Council of State seats drew very few voters in Columbus County and at the state level.
Hal Weatherman handily won the GOP nomination for Lt. Governor, while Dave Boliek had a close race for state auditor. Weatherman came in second to Jim O’Neil in the March primary, when 11 candidates were vying for the Republican nod. Weatherman aggressively pursued the post in the second primary, gathering 95,512 votes across the state to O’Neil’s 32,832. Locally, 347 voters chose Weatherman and 104 O’Neil.
A devout evangelical Christian, Weatherman was chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, and worked for U.S. Congresswoman Sue Myrick. He will face Democrat Rachel Hunt this fall. Hunt is a state senator and daughter of former Gov. Jim Hunt. The Hunt campaign is expected to attract major funding for state Democrat candidates across the board this fall.
Boliek will face Democrat Jessica Holmes this fall. Holmes was appointed to replace State Auditor Beth Woods after Woods left the scene of a car crash while departing a Christmas party in her state vehicle.
Boliek took 66,402 votes over Jack Clark’s 58,269 on Tuesday. Locally, the race was even closer—Boliek received 233 votes to Clark’s 213. In March, Clark topped a field of six candidates to receive 1,093 votes. While Clark led the pack, his tally was not quite enough to prevent a runoff, since Boliek got 670 votes.
Boliek is a retired prosecutor and member of the UNC Board of Trustees. He headed the system’s Audit Committee, which found around $100 million in unaccounted for or missing funds. The audit committee also helped the system balance its budget for the first time in decades.
Tuesday’s election was only for Republicans and unaffiliated voters who voted a Republican ticket in Match.
