Published August 10, 2026 at 3:44 PM EDT

Gov. Josh Stein announced Monday that he is pulling his nomination of Jeff Smythe to lead the N.C. Department of Public Safety.

Stein pointed to the North Carolina State Senate's refusal to confirm Smythe or hold a hearing for him since Stein anounced his appointment to the secretary position last December.

"By failing to consider his nomination or even hold a single public hearing, the Senate abdicated its responsibility, disrespected Jeff and law enforcement, and undermined the safety of the people of North Carolina. Their failure to do their jobs is unacceptable,” Stein, a Democrat, wrote in a statement.

Over the last two weeks, the General Assembly wrapped up its legislative short session. Lawmakers do not plan to return to take up substantive business until after November’s elections.

Stein is shifting Smythe into a role as his senior advisor for homeland security. At DPS, Stein is appointing Chief of Staff Cassandra Hoekstra to serve as the agency's interim secretary and said he will open up a new search.

"Politics should never get in the way of our work to create a safer, stronger North Carolina. I certainly won’t let it," Stein wrote.

Smythe has a nearly four-decade career in law enforcement, including eight years as the City of Burlington's police chief and more than four years as director of the N.C. Department of Justice's Criminal Justice Education & Training Standards division.

Smythe's career has included service on U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency task forces, as well as undercover work. While working as Burlington's chief, Smythe started that department's Gunstoppers program, an initiative that offers cash rewards in return for tips that lead to information about illegal or stolen guns.

Senate Judiciary chairs Sen. Danny Britt, R-Robeson; Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke; and Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, wrote in a statement Monday that the chamber has the duty to advise and consent on nominations.

"When law enforcement officers across the state raised serious concerns about the nomination of Jeff Smythe, we advised Gov. Stein his choice didn’t have the votes. He chose to withdraw the nomination. It is our hope that Gov. Stein nominates someone who puts the safety of all North Carolinians first," the Judiciary chairs wrote.

The Carolina Journal has previously reported that senators had concerns about whether Smythe's ongoing service as a Burlington city councilman presented a conflict with his ability to lead DPS, as well as questions about whether Smythe was too progressive for the role. During the 2020 George Floyd protests, Smythe was shown standing with protesters holding a sign that read "end police brutality," and he would later serve on Cooper's Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice.

Smythe told senators in a letter that the State Ethics Commission had determined there was no conflict between the city council position and DPS secretary role. Nevertheless, Smythe wrote, he was prepared to resign the city council position if necessary.

Monday, Smythe wrote in a statement that serving as secretary as been the honor of his lifetime.

"I am incredibly proud of the dedicated men and women of this agency and everything they do each day to protect the people of our state. I have spent four decades in law enforcement, and serving the people of North Carolina has always been my highest priority," Smythe wrote.

The Senate has confirmed Stein’s appointments to lead the other 10 cabinet agencies over the course of the biennium.

A budget technical corrections bill that the General Assembly sent to Stein last week includes a provision about appointments that says if the Senate doesn't consider an appointment during the biennium in which it occurred, that person can no longer lead the department and cannot be reappointed while the governor is in office.

House Bill 268 says that the provision would apply to appointments made during the 2025-26 biennium, meaning it would have applied to Smythe if the Senate continued to not consider his appointment.

Former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, also ultimately hired as an advisor an appointee the Senate refused to confirm to lead an agency.

In 2021, Republican senators voted down Cooper's appointment of Dionne Delli-Gatti to lead the Department of Environmental Quality. The same day, Cooper hired Delli-Gatti as his clean energy director, and from there she played a key role in negotiating the compromise version of House Bill 951, the state's landmark carbon dioxide emissions reduction law.

Delli-Gatti's nomination marked the first time that the Senate had refused to confirm a cabinet appointment since the General Assembly gave it that power for cabinet agency leadership shortly after Cooper won election in 2016.

The key difference between Delli-Gatti's case and Smythe's is that the Senate held a hearing for Delli-Gatti and ultimately voted her nomination down. Senators have not called Smythe in for a hearing nor held a vote on his qualifications.