Joshua Stein (born September 13, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician who serves as the 50th and current Attorney General of North Carolina since 2017. A Democrat, Stein was most recently a member of the North Carolina Senate representing District 16 (Wake County). Stein was sworn in for his first term on January 15, 2009. After being re-elected, he was elected minority whip by his colleagues in December 2010.He announced in 2013 that he would run for re-election in 2014 and then for North Carolina Attorney General in 2016. His former boss, Attorney General Roy Cooper, successfully ran for Governor in 2016. In 2014, Stein was opposed by Republican Molotov Mitchell, who ran an "unusual" campaign – challenging Stein to push-ups and promising to "bounce" a National Security Agency-funded laboratory from the campus of North Carolina State University. Stein was re-elected in a landslide.Following the March 15 Democratic primary, Stein resigned from his seat in the North Carolina State Senate to focus on the race for Attorney General, which he won defeating Republican Buck Newton.