Dave Boliek just did big damage to his chances of being NC’s next governor | Opinion
As one of the most high-profile and high-ranking Republicans in statewide office, State Auditor Dave Boliek seems like he’d be a great gubernatorial candidate for his party in 2028.
But he may be hurting his chances by exercising a heavy hand in the role he was given as overseer of the State Board of Elections.
Apparently, Boliek and Republicans in Raleigh pressured Republican election officials in Jackson County to reject an early voting site at Western Carolina University for the upcoming midterms. The site has been used for early voting in past general elections and has increased youth voter turnout.
One Republican member, Jay Pavey, said he’d been told that “if I don’t vote a particular way, that they will do whatever they have to do to remove me from the board.” Pavey voted with Democrats to approve the site for early voting. The board’s chairman, also a Republican, admitted that he had been asked to reject the campus voting site by the auditor’s office. He was the only one to vote to relocate the site. A third Republican member, Wes Hanemayer, resigned from his position before the vote, saying in a resignation letter that “third parties feel they can demand that I take a completely illogical path.”
There was no real reason for relocating the campus voting site. Pavey said he and Hanemayer presented party officials with evidence that showed why the WCU site was the best location. According to Pavey, the only explanation he got was, “We just don’t want it on campus.”
It shouldn’t be hard to let county election officials do their jobs. After all, they probably have a better idea of what’s best for their communities than anyone in Raleigh. But that apparently may not matter in the face of more partisan goals, such as making it more difficult for young people to vote. The board’s chairman, who ultimately succumbed to his party’s request, didn’t seem to take issue with the pressure.
“It’s just part of the party,” he said Wednesday, according to NC Newsline. “And I’m the Republican chair, so I’ve got to listen to what the party says a little bit. I serve at their pleasure a little bit. They can do away with me. It is a part of it. It’s like the Democrats — they listen to their party. That’s just politics.”
Really?
It’s exactly the kind of meddling that many feared would happen when Republicans wrested control of the State Board of Elections away from the Democratic governor and placed it in the hands of the newly elected Republican auditor. And if it’s enough to draw objections from even Republican board members, that makes it even more concerning.
Voters don’t like meddling. And meddling is exactly what Boliek appears to have done since he took over the elections board last year. He has wielded far more authority as auditor than governors typically did in the past, including by appointing his own “liaison” to state and county boards of elections. That “liaison” is Dallas Woodhouse, former executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party. He’s also made the board and its staff more partisan in what The New York Times called “the most consequential reconfiguration of an electoral system of any swing state.”
Boliek could be the type of moderate Republican who has a real shot of getting elected as governor in a purple state. A fair, impartial auditor who holds government accountable is someone who can appeal to voters across the political spectrum. Instead, he’s using his office for political “gotcha” moments and election meddling. That makes him sound more like Donald Trump, who isn’t exactly popular in North Carolina right now. Perhaps Boliek is fine with that, since Trump endorsed him when he ran for auditor in 2024. But it could cause problems for him in 2028, regardless of which office he chooses to run for.
Deputy Opinion Editor Paige Masten is covering politics and the 2026 elections for The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer.
