Boliek defeats Clark in GOP runoff for state auditor

A Republican who campaigned on balancing UNC-Chapel Hill’s budget will be the GOP’s nominee for state auditor.

Voting results Tuesday showed UNC Board of Trustees member Dave Boliek with a strong lead over accountant Jack Clark in the Republican primary runoff for state auditor. With 99% of precincts reporting, Boliek had 53% of the vote, compared with 47% for Clark.

Clark called Boliek shortly after 10 p.m. to concede. "It was a well-run race and Dave came out on top," Clark told WRAL. “He has my complete and total support for the general [election]. We ran a clean, friendly campaign. There was no animosity."

Boliek posted a statement to Facebook Tuesday night thanking his supporters.

"I’m honored and humbled that thousands of voters I’ve met as I campaign across our great state trusted me to be the Republican nominee for state auditor in 2024," Boliek said. "For the next six months, we will continue to take our message of making North Carolina state government effective, efficient, and accountable to taxpayers to every corner of our state."

Boliek will face Democrat Jessica Holmes, the current state auditor, in the November general election. Gov. Roy Cooper appointed Holmes to the position in December to fill a vacancy left by Democrat Beth Wood. Wood stepped down after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of using a state-owned vehicle for personal errands. Authorities investigated Wood after she was involved in a hit-and-run crash in downtown Raleigh in late 2022.

Boliek, a former prosecutor who runs a private law practice in Fayetteville, said his experience as chairman of the UNC Board of Trustees from 2021 to 2023 prompted him to run for office.

“We reformed the budget process, hired a [chief financial officer], took the budget out of the hands of the provost and put it into a professional financial manager’s hands,” Boliek told WRAL in an interview before Election Day. “And, in the process, we found a $100 million structural deficit.”

Boliek, 56, and Clark, 32, ran distinctly different types of campaigns.

Clark leaned on his professional credentials. A certified public accountant who works at the state legislature, Clark vowed to restore trust to the state auditor’s office in part by limiting public comments about hot-button issues and by working as an independent watchdog of government spending.

Boliek, who touts a master’s degree in business administration, argues that the state auditor doesn’t need to be a CPA and on the campaign trail sought to appeal to Republican voters by vowing to target diversity, equity and inclusion policies if elected, and to audit the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

“These Council of State positions are about courage and leadership, primarily,” Boliek previously told WRAL. “Courage and leadership means you let the voters know where you stand and what your belief system is and you don’t compromise your belief system to curry voters on either side of the aisle.”

Holmes, who is also a lawyer, released a statement Tuesday night, saying the office is not meant to be "a megaphone for a partisan extremist with an agenda."

She said Boliek already cost taxpayers money by calling for a runoff "and still barely won after significantly outspending his opponent."

Clark got slightly more votes than Boliek in the Republican Party’s primary for state auditor in March, when none of the six candidates received the 30% support required to win the party’s nomination outright. Neither had run for elected office before this race. Boliek loaned his campaign $100,000 and raised another $400,000 all before the March primary, according to his most recent quarterly campaign finance report. Clark, meanwhile, loaned his campaign $5,000 and reported spending less than $10,000 as of Feb. 25.

Holmes is a former Wake County commissioner with longstanding relationships with North Carolina Democrats. She says she has refocused the office’s mission to focus “on services that impact our state’s most vulnerable residents including seniors, people with disabilities, our children, programs that support foster youth, address food security, affordable housing, and hurricane relief.”

She cites an audit of federal funds as her top achievement so far. Her office said it found inadequate monitoring of certain block grants and funds for housing, foster care and opioid abuse treatment; incorrect usage of foster care funds; and deficiencies in the process to determine eligibility for adoptions and Medicaid. Most cases involved nominal amounts when compared with the state’s $30 billion budget.

"We’re all tired of partisan politics and dog whistles. I’m here to do the work, not to be a rubber stamp for anyone," Holmes said.

Boliek says voters deserve to know his position on political issues. He also told WRAL that his ability to raise money will benefit Republican candidates in November.

“My ability to raise money, and to put forward a professional campaign, I think is really important in the fall for the Republican Party,” Boliek said. “I will be a formidable candidate. I will be a well-financed candidate. I will not be a drag on the ticket. In fact, I will be a helper on the ticket in the fall.”