Current Attorney General Josh Stein also faced a defamation lawsuit during his campaign in 2020, when Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill sued after Stein ran an ad that claimed O’Neill let rape kits go untested. Governor Roy Cooper, who was the attorney general before Stein, also had a libel lawsuit filed against him in 2000 by Dan Boyce, who disputed a campaign ad by Cooper that said Boyce charged $28,000 an hour to represent taxpayers while suing the state. Cooper issued an apology for the ad in 2014.

I’m new to the state. I guess this is a rite of passage in the AG to Gov. pipeline?