The Chronicle’s guide to competitive NC General Assembly races

While the presidential and gubernatorial races have dominated recent news cycles ahead of the 2024 general election, they’re not the only names on the ballot. This year, North Carolinian voters will also elect representatives to the N.C. General Assembly.

The General Assembly consists of the 120-member state House of Representatives and the 50-member state Senate, and members of both chambers serve two-year terms with no term limits.

Republicans currently hold supermajorities in both the state House and the state Senate, meaning they have enough party members to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. The GOP has held control of both chambers since 2010, and it achieved a supermajority in April 2023 after N.C. Rep. Tricia Cotham changed her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

In an effort to maintain their control, the N.C. Republican Party has invested over $5 million in competitive races at the state level, including multiple seats held by incumbents. Meanwhile, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has included 14 N.C. state legislature races in its $10 million campaign to oust Republicans from their seats and break up the supermajority.

Implications of the supermajority

“The difference between a Republican supermajority and just an outright Republican majority has been very consequential for North Carolina voters,” said Asher Hildebrand, professor of the practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy.

Hildebrand explained that before Republicans gained a supermajority, the state’s “divided government” between a Republican-controlled General Assembly and Democratic-led executive branch functioned as both “a recipe for gridlock” and “a recipe for moderation.”

Now with the power to override Cooper’s vetoes, the Republican caucus has been able to push more conservative policies through the legislature. Hildebrand referenced North Carolina’s “stricter abortion ban,” which banned the procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy, as well as recent legislation that “tightens some of the requirements of absentee balloting” and increases funding for school vouchers.

In October 2023, the General Assembly passed new congressional and state legislative maps that shifted the even split between Democratic- and Republican-leaning districts to a breakdown of 10 districts favoring Republicans, three favoring Democrats and one remaining a toss-up. The change was expected to give Republicans three additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives following the 2024 election.

A federal lawsuit filed in November alleged that the maps were racially gerrymandered, but the case was dismissed in January.

McCorkle qualified that while he thinks it will be “very tough” for Democrats to break the supermajority, one thing that could make a difference is Republican voters moving away from the party in this year’s election cycle after being put off by inflammatory rhetoric from Robinson and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“So much of what is going on is going to be determined by the top of the ticket,” he said.

Here are the races that could decide North Carolina’s political landscape this November.

Senate District 11

Encompassing Franklin, Nash and Vance counties, District 11 is one of the most politically competitive districts in the state. The incumbent, Republican Sen. Lisa Barnes, has represented the district since 2021 and has the multi-million dollar backing of her party.

Barnes was the primary sponsor of the recent Parent’s Bill of Rights, which is intended to increase parents' control over their children’s education and passed via veto override in July 2023. The bill included controversial provisions banning curriculum on gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality in N.C. public schools and was labeled by Cooper as a “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Her opponent is Democrat James Mercer, former lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and president and CEO of the Mercer Foundation, a nonprofit social services program for children and veterans. Mercer is also currently the director of military studies at North Carolina Wesleyan University. According to his campaign website, Mercer’s priorities include addressing local infrastructure needs, enhancing accountable policing and increasing public school funding.

Senate District 13

Before 2023, District 13 was historically Democratic and encompassed North Raleigh. When the congressional map was redrawn last year, the district shifted to southern Wake County, which is more conservative. President Biden won here by just over 1% in the 2020 presidential election.

Democratic Sen. Lisa Grafstein, the incumbent and first openly LGBTQ+ state senator in North Carolina, is a disability rights advocate and civil rights lawyer.

Elected to the 13th district in 2022, her residence was drawn into the 15th district — represented by Democrat Sen. Jay Chaudhuri — during the 2023 redistricting cycle. To remain eligible for reelection, she relocated to the newly-drawn 13th district, making her campaign much tighter. 

Her opponent, Republican Scott Lassiter, vice-chairman of the Wake County Soil and Water District Board of Supervisors and former councilman for the town of Apex, filed a challenge to remove Grafstein from the ballot and called on her to resign, stating “she shouldn’t be able to have it both ways” by living in one district while representing another. His challenge ultimately failed.

Lassiter holds superintendent, principal and teacher licenses and is currently the assistant principal at Connections Academy Middle School in Wake County. He supports increasing government accountability and fixing local infrastructure and has expressed skepticism over increasing funding for vouchers to send students to private schools, arguing that “well-funded, well-managed public schools are the cornerstone of a self-governing society.”

Lassiter was recently suspended with pay from his assistant principal position after the school district opened an investigation into his role breaking up a fight between students.

Senate District 18

District 18 was also impacted by changes to North Carolina’s General Assembly maps in 2023. It formerly contained heavily Democratic portions of North Raleigh but has been redrawn to include more suburban areas, shifting to a slight Republican majority.

Democratic Rep. Terrence Everitt, representing State House District 35, was recruited by Cooper to run for the seat after incumbent Democrat Sen. Mary Wills Bode chose not to seek reelection in 2024. Everitt was the primary sponsor of multiple state House bills aimed at protecting abortion and contraception rights. 

He holds a 4-1 fundraising advantage over Republican Ashlee Adams, a nurse, event planner and small business owner. Adams’ platform primarily focuses on cutting government spending, lowering taxes and funding alternatives to public schools.

Despite her fundraising deficit, the state Republican Party has poured over $2 million into District 18 advertisement buys to benefit Adams.

Senate District 42

Formerly a Democratic district, Mecklenburg County-based District 42 was won by President Biden by single digits in the 2020 election. The incumbent Democratic Sen. Rachel Hunt is leaving the seat to run for lieutenant governor.

Stacie McGinn, Republican candidate for District 42 senator, is a nonprofit director and former deputy general counsel for Bank of America, where she managed a $30 million budget — the size of North Carolina’s budget. She focuses on education reform, public safety, lowering taxes and reducing business regulation.

Her opponent, Democratic candidate Woodson Bradley, has been a realtor in the Charlotte area since 2002 and now owns Woodson Bradley Real Estate. She is a community volunteer and domestic violence advocate who seeks to restore abortion rights and increase funding for public schools.

House District 24

While District 24 — based east of the Triangle area in Wilson and Nash Counties — was unchanged in the 2023 redistricting process, it remains one of the most competitive in North Carolina.

Incumbent Republican Rep. Ken Fontenot made a strong showing when he secured his first term in 2022, winning by more than 8% over then-incumbent Democratic Rep. Linda Cooper-Suggs. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps for eight years and is the pastor of Bethel Baptist Church.

Fontenot was one of the primary sponsors of H.B. 808 and H.B. 607, which ban gender transition procedures for people under the age of 18 and expand the definition of free speech on college campuses, respectively. H.B. 808 passed after the General Assembly overrode Gov. Cooper’s veto in August 2023.

Fontenot is running against Democratic Rep. Dante Pittman, 28-year-old chair of the Wilson County Department of Social Services’ board and an officer in the N.C. Army National Guard. Pittman has outraised the incumbent Republican threefold.

Recruited to run for the seat by former Gov. Jim Hunt, Pittman hopes to appeal to his district’s large rural and working-class population on a platform of economic strength and opportunity, while also prioritizing increased funding for public schools, lower housing costs and expanded health care access.

House District 25

Incumbent Republican Rep. Allen Chesser is one of few in his party representing a district won by Biden in the 2020 election. First elected in 2022, Chesser is a combat veteran, former Raleigh police officer and self-proclaimed “Christian constitutional conservative.” His district encompasses a majority of Nash County.

Since being elected to the House, he has passed bills to expand school voucher programs, loosen purchase regulations on pistol firearms and allow foster families to care for more children. So far, Chesser has received support from many local officials in Nash County and the endorsement of Robinson.

Democrat Lorenza Wilkins, chief officer of people and culture and interim chief operating officer at the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, hopes to prevail over Chesser this November. Wilkins advocates for educational reform, reproductive rights and combating mental health crises and opposes private school vouchers.

House District 32

Incumbent Republican Rep. Frank Sossamon also represents a Biden-won district in Granville and Vance Counties. In 2022, he was elected by over 2.5% in a district that Biden won by over 10%. In Sossamon’s new district, Biden won by just over 8%.

Sossamon is a former Pentecostal pastor and community volunteer. Much of his work in the General Assembly thus far has focused on expanding resources for public education and mental health services.

Democrat Bryan Cohn, Oxford city commissioner and agricultural manufacturing professional, has been outspoken against the MAGA movement and private school vouchers and advocates for pro-choice causes. In his current role as city commissioner, he has focused on improving infrastructure and expanding local affordable housing efforts.

House District 73

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Diamond Staton-Williams is facing another close contest this year after narrowly winning her northeastern Charlotte-based district in 2022.

Staton-Williams, a nurse and small business owner, has been closely involved with efforts to restore abortion rights and expand Medicaid in the General Assembly. She came under fire last fall for not voting in favor of a bill that urged Congress to support Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks.

Her opponent, Republican Jonathan Almond, is highly critical of the Biden administration and has praised the Republican supermajority in the Assembly. As a Second Amendment advocate and opponent of critical race theory and gender-affirming care for youth, he hopes to win the conservative-leaning district, which Donald Trump won by 8.4% in 2020. This is a sharp change from Joe Biden’s 1.8% victory in this district before it was redrawn.

House District 98

Based in northern Huntersville, this district seat opened up after incumbent Republican Rep. John Bradford decided to run for U.S. Congress, though he lost in the March primary.

Democrat Beth Helfrich, a former classroom teacher and administrator, has raised over $240,000 for her campaign, over twice her opponent Republican Melinda Bales’ $91,000. Helfrich is an education advocate who seeks to expand access to health care, childcare and reproductive care, as well as housing and transportation options to accommodate population growth. Bales, the former mayor of Huntersville, wants to grow technical education schools and streamline infrastructural improvement efforts.

Earlier this year, the N.C. Republican Party paid for a mailer stating that Helfrich supported the legalization of “heroin and hookers.” Bales denied involvement in the scheme, which was based upon a point in the North Carolina Progressive Caucus’s 2020 platform supporting the legalization of certain narcotics and sex work. Helfrich called the mailers “absurd scare tactics” and encouraged voters not to take them seriously, while also advocating for “serious, holistic approaches” to issues of addiction and overdose.

House District 105

Incumbent Tricia Cotham, a former high school assistant principal, made a name for herself when she switched parties from Democrat to Republican last April, giving Republicans a supermajority in the General Assembly.

Cotham has received backlash from Democratic colleagues, particularly for her decision-making vote that helped override Gov. Cooper’s veto on S.B. 20, which defined North Carolina’s recent 12-week abortion restriction. Before she changed parties, she was a Democratic sponsor of H.B. 19, which sought to keep abortion legal in North Carolina. Cotham also sponsored a bill expanding the scope of North Carolina Opportunity Scholarships.

Cotham’s Democratic opponent Nicole Sidman said that Cotham “betrayed her constituents, voted for the most restrictive abortion ban in North Carolina history and lied about all of it in the process.” Sidman, who has raised over $300,000 for her campaign, has starkly contrasted herself with Cotham by emphasizing her opposition to abortion restriction, private school vouchers and “partisan gerrymandering.”

Following Cotham’s party switch, her district shifted from encompassing heavily Democratic parts of south Charlotte to the more conservative suburbs of Matthews and Mint Hill. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties have identified District 105 as a seat that will decide the balance of power in North Carolina.

House District 115

District 115, consisting of the north suburbs of Asheville and surrounding areas, experienced some of the most changes following last year’s redistricting cycle. Out of 20 voting precincts that make up the district, only four remained the same as the previous map, flipping the district from a strong Democratic lean to a significant Republican advantage.

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Lindsey Prather, an administrator at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, has raised nearly $300,000 in her effort to hold her seat. She is a leader in efforts to halt the Opportunity Scholarship program and protect access to IVF. Her campaign seeks to emphasize investment in public education, affordable health care and equal opportunity for all, including those who live in the rural mountainous areas near Asheville.

Prather’s opponent is Republican Ruth Smith, a lawyer and small business owner. Her campaign outlines her support for lowering taxes, involving parents in education and curbing affirmative action policies.