Michael Morgan, a Democrat who stepped down from the N.C. Supreme Court officially last week, is running for governor after publicly mulling a run.
Morgan joins the state's attorney general, Josh Stein, in the Democratic primary. Stein was endorsed by sitting Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper last week after Morgan announced he would be stepping down.
"As a devoted North Carolinian and a devoted Democrat, I am disappointed in the growing trend — even in my own party — of a few folks in power trying to select the people's leaders and determining our destinies," Morgan said in a press release announcing his candidacy. "I am committed to challenging the status quo that allows a few at the top to choose the winners and losers among us."
Morgan has spent 44 years as a state employee and 34 years as a judge, sitting in four different judgeships — more than any other person in North Carolina history.
