governor Josh Stein

about governor 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 is to create a safer, stronger North Carolina. He is bringing people together to help western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene, creating economic opportunity for all North Carolinians, investing in public schools, and keeping 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.

First Lady Anna Stein

First Lady Anna Stein was born in Elkin, North Carolina, the Surry County town where both of her parents were raised. She is the daughter of David Harris and Patty and Ron Brown and the big sister of John Harris, Sara Brown Gardner, and the late Laura Brown.

She moved to Greenville as a baby while her parents attended East Carolina University, and later, at age seven, settled in Winston-Salem. Anna attended R.J. Reynolds High School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, obtaining both a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Juris Doctor.

Anna met her husband Josh in 1993 while the two were summer legal interns for Attorney General Michael Easley. After graduating from law school, Anna clerked on the NC Court of Appeals for Judge Joe John and then joined Robin Hudson in private practice, later clerking for Hudson at the NC Court of Appeals as well.

After having her three children, Sam, Adam, and Leah, Anna returned to graduate school to obtain her master’s in public health from UNC-Chapel Hill. From 2011-2024, she worked as an agency legal specialist for the Chronic Disease and Injury Section at the NC Division of Public Health, specializing in policy surrounding legal substances such as tobacco and alcohol, and illicit substances.

Growing up in rural North Carolina and then working in public health and law grounded Anna’s goals as First Lady of North Carolina: ending the stigma around substance use disorder and mental health, supporting reentry programs and rehabilitation programs and correctional staff, and promoting rural tourism. Most recently, Anna was appointed to the Joint Reentry Council by Department of Adult Correction Secretary Leslie Cooley Dismukes, where she will participate in the council’s critical work to improve rehabilitation and reentry for incarcerated individuals in our state.

In her spare time, Anna likes to spend time with her husband Josh; her kids Sam, Adam, and Leah; and her dogs Lila and Harper.