Greg Dority is not seeking a second primary to select the Republican candidate to take on State Auditor Beth Wood in the Nov. 6 general election.

Dority, a Beaufort County resident and former congressional candidate, came in second behind Debra Goldman in the May 8 GOP primary to pick a Republican candidate to take on Wood. Goldman collected 34.35 percent of the vote in the May 8 primary with Dority garnering 23.82 percent of the vote.

In a telephone call to the Daily News on Wednesday afternoon, Dority explained his decision to not request a second primary.

“There are, basically, two reasons,” he said. “The first is having been in a runoff before, I know what an aggressive campaign does to the candidates. With the runoff this year extended to July, the feeling is that whatever candidate emerged would be so weakened we would have difficulty in winning the state in November.”

Dority also discussed the decision-making process that resulted in him not seeking a second primary.

“We’ve spent the last few days looking at the numbers and the political-science side of the equation. The conclusion we’ve come to is that the absolute best we could do with an aggressive voter-awareness campaign would be to get this thing down to about a coin flip,” Dority said. “With most of the vote in the western part of the state due to runoffs in (congressional districts) 8, 9 and 11, we decided (Wednesday) afternoon that the best thing to do would be to step aside and give my opponent (Goldman) a running start at the November general election.”

Dority has never held elective office, but he has been a candidate for multiple offices since 2002. The offices he has sought include U.S. House in the 1st Congressional District and lieutenant governor.

Dority’s last campaign was in 2010, against U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C. Watt achieved re-election. Last November, Dority said he intended to run against North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, but, this year, he made it known he’d changed his mind after receiving advice from GOP officials.