State Legislator

After serving as President of the Young Democrats of North Carolina, Goodwin served four full terms in the North Carolina state House. Goodwin campaigned as the Democratic nominee for the position of North Carolina Commissioner of Labor in the 2004 election, losing in a close race to incumbent Republican Cherie Berry.

Insurance Commissioner

Goodwin served as the Assistant Commissioner of Insurance and Assistant State Fire Marshal for the State of North Carolina from 2005 through 2008. In 2008, Goodwin filed to run for Commissioner of Insurance after the surprise retirement of longtime Commissioner Jim Long.^[4] Goodwin defeated David Smith in the Democratic primary 56%–43%^[5] and went on to beat Republican John Odom and Libertarian Mark McMains with 51.57% of the vote.^[6] He was sworn in on January 10, 2009.^[7] Goodwin won re-election in the 2012 general contest by almost four percentage points.

NC Democratic Party Chair

He was a candidate for re-election to his post in 2016.^[8] After very narrowly losing the general election, Goodwin announced that he would run for chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party.^[9] With the support of 92% of ballots cast, he was elected to lead the state party on Feb. 11, 2017.^[10] Two years later, in January 2019, Goodwin won unanimous re-election to a second term as chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party.^[11] After completing a customary second term, Goodwin chose to refrain from a third term soon after his wife died from cancer and he had two children to raise. His first vice chair, Bobbie Richardson, succeeded Goodwin as party chair.^[12]

He unsuccessfully sought a third (non-consecutive) term as insurance commissioner in the 2020 election.

DMV Commissioner

In 2022, Goodwin was appointed commissioner of the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles.^[13] As commissioner, he lifted various restrictions for LGBT speech on vanity plates. Previously, vanity plates with LGBT content were not permitted by the Division. Under the direction of Goodwin, the DMV cracked down on racist and antisemitic vanity plates that had been approved due to creative spelling used to get around DMV restrictions.^[14]

Goodwin has also made several changes as commissioner to streamline DMV service. He has implemented extended walk-in hours and extended business hours at several DMV locations, as well as expanded online services. He has also announced the introduction of DMV self-service kiosks in places such as pharmacies and grocery stores, allowing DMV customers to renew their license and registration while shopping for groceries or picking up prescriptions.^[15]