U.S. Rep. David Price and Rep. G.K. Butterfield, Democrats representing North Carolina’s 4th and 1st Congressional Districts, respectively, are both projected to win reelection by the Associated Press.
Price represents Durham under the House map used in the 2020 election, although the county was split between Price and Butterfield’s districts under the old map used in 2018. Going into the night, both were expected to cruise to reelection in the heavily Democratic districts.
Price is also a tenured professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Elsewhere in the state, Democrats Deborah Ross and Kathy Manning and Republicans Greg Murphy, Virginia Foxx, David Rouzer, Richard Hudson, Dan Bishop, Patrick McHenry, Madison Cawthorn and Ted Budd also had races called in their favor by the AP. Democratic Rep. Alma Adams ran unopposed for her seat in the 12th district, leaving Republicans with an 8-5 advantage in the North Carolina House delegation.
Two districts—the 2nd and 6th—flipped to Democrats after multi-term Republican incumbents declined to run for reelection. Ross won in the 2nd and Manning won in the 6th.
Republicans won eight of North Carolina's 13 House Districts.
In the 2nd District, which includes part of Wake County, Republican George Holding decided not to run for reelection after a court ordered North Carolina’s House districts to be redrawn in 2019 due to unconstitutional gerrymandering. With the new map, the 2nd District tilts toward Democrats where the old one favored Republicans by double digits, and the Cook Political Report ranked it as “Likely Democratic.” The story was much the same in the 6th District, which was also redrawn and presented an uphill climb for Republican incumbent Mark Walker, who also decided not to run for reelection. The Cook Political Report rated the 6th as “Likely Democratic” as well.
In another vacant N.C. seat, 25-year-old Republican Madison Cawthorn won against former Guantanamo Bay Chief Prosecutor Moe Davis, a Democrat, to replace Republican Mark Meadows, who left the seat to become Donald Trump’s chief of staff. Cawthorn was slightly favored, with the Cook Political Report rating the race as “Lean Republican.” Cawthorn has come under fire for sexual misconduct allegations and 2017 social media posts saying that visiting Adolf Hitler’s mountain retreat had been on his “bucket list for a while.”
Two other House races—out of North Carolina’s 13—were also rated as “Lean Republican.” One of those was the 9th, which was a national media story after election fraud in a 2018 election won by Republican Mark Harris, leading to a second election. Republican Dan Bishop beat Harris’ original opponent, Democrat Dan McCready, and stood for election as the incumbent this year. The other semi-competitive race—in the 8th district—is north of Charlotte and home to Fort Bragg. The Republicans won in both districts.
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Carter Forinash, Trinity '21, was the news editor for The Chronicle's 116th volume.