Pardon Our Dust
We recently launched this new site and are still in the process of updating some of our archived content. Some details of this article may be incomplete, links may be broken, and other elements may not display properly yet. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
Less than four days remain until Election Day, and while the country has been focused on the presidential election NC’s ballots include a number of down-ballot races. Along with the presidential election, North Carolinian’s will be voting in statewide races for one seat in the US Senate, the NC Council of State, a NC Supreme Court Justice and five seats on the NC Court of Appeals. All of the seats in the NC House and Senate as well as NC’s 13 seats in the US House are up for election, ballots will include these races based upon districts.
McGuireWoods Consulting has published detailed reports over the past month on the statewide races to provide you with resources for Election Day. We will keep you up to date on the results of the elections on November 9.
Election Day Resources
If you live in NC, these resources will help answer your questions as you prepare for Election Day:
- To access a non-partisan voter guide, click here.
- To check your registration and view a sample ballot, click here.
- To find your Election Day polling location, click here.
- To find who represents you at the state and federal level, click here.
- Same day registration and voting continue through tomorrow, November 5. To find an early voting location near you, click here.
Federal Elections
North Carolina has become a battleground state in the presidential election. With 15 electoral votes, pollsters have said that the state is a must-win for either candidate to reach 270. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, along with their surrogates, have made numerous stops in the state as they battle each other to win the “purple” state which favored Obama in 2008 and Romney in 2012.
The increased political attention to the state has also elevated the state’s US Senate race, where incumbent and Republican Richard Burr faces Democratic challenger Deborah Ross and Libertarian Sean Haugh.
Burr, elected in 2004 after ten years in the US House, has strongly advocated for reducing government spending, opposes the Affordable Care Act, and his campaign has put an emphasis on national security and supporting military families. Deborah Ross, whose experience includes a decade in the NC State House of Representatives, has advocated for reducing the cost of higher education and her campaign focuses on climate change, and infrastructure. Haugh, a pizza delivery driver, favors a smaller government both socially and economically.
Aggregate poll data has given Burr a consistent, but close lead over Ross. While Ross has outraised Burr in recent months, Burr had more cash on hand at the end of the last quarter. The winning candidate will join Republican Sen. Thom Tillis in in representing NC in the US Senate.
In addition to the Senate race, all of NC’s 13 seats in the US House of Representatives are on the ballot. Presently, the state is represented by ten Republicans and three Democrats in DC. In February of this year, the legislature redrew the Congressional districts. To view the most current map, click here.
District 1: Democratic incumbent G.K Butterfield will face both Republican challenger H. Powell Dew and Libertarian J.J. Summerell. The district is located in the northeast region of the state.
District 2: After defeating incumbent Renee Ellmers in the primary, Republican George Holding, who currently represents the 13th District, will face Democrat John McNeil. The district includes a portion of Wake County as well as more rural counties to its east.
District 3: Democrat David Hurst seeks to unseat Republican incumbent Walter Jones. The district is comprised of counties in the outer and inner coastal plains.
District 4: Democratic incumbent David Price will face Republican challenger Sue Googe. The 4th District includes Orange County and portions of Durham and Wake Counties.
District 5: Virginia Foxx, the incumbent and a Republican, will face Democratic challenger Josh Brannon. The district is located in the northwest region of the state.
District 6: Republican incumbent Mark Walker will face Democratic challenger Pete Glidewell. The district is located in the Piedmont region of the state.
District 7: David Rouzer, the incumbent and a Republican will face Democratic challenger J. Wesley Casteen. The district is located in the southeastern portion of the state.
District 8: Republican incumbent Richard Hudson will face Democratic challenger Thomas Mills. The district sits on the edges of Mecklenburg County and includes portions of both the Sandhills and Piedmont regions.
District 9: Democrat Christian Cano seeks to unseat Republican incumbent Robert Pittenger. The district is located primarily in the Sandhills region of the state and portions of Mecklenburg County.
District 10: Democratic challenger Andy Millard seeks to oust Republican incumbent Patrick McHenry. This district is located in the southwest region of the state.
District 11: Republican incumbent Mark Meadows will face Democratic challenger Rick Bryson. The 11th District includes the western most region of the state.
District 12: Democratic incumbent Alma Adams will be challenged by Republican Leon Threatt. The district is comprised of the majority of Mecklenburg County.
District 13: Democrat Bruce Davis and Republican Ted Budd seek to fill this open seat. The seat was vacated when Republican George Holding moved from the 13th district to the 2nd following redistricting.
NC Council of State Elections
The governor and all of the positions on the NC Council of State are up for election on the 8th. To review the candidates running in these races, follow this link.
NC General Assembly Elections
The seats in both the State Senate and House of Representatives are up for election every two years. All of the seats in the NC House and Senate are up for election. Of the 120 seats in the House, 58 candidates are running without opposition and there are 62 contested races. In the Senate, 15 candidates, all of whom are incumbents are running without opposition, and 35 races are contested.
To review the candidates running for the State House, click here, and for the Senate, follow this link.
NC Judicial Elections
There are six seats on NC’s state-level courts up for nonpartisan election on the 8th, one on the state’s Supreme Court and five in the Court of Appeals. In NC judicial races are non-partisan; however, candidates do declare their partisan affiliation upon filing for candidacy. Party affiliation does not appear on the ballot for seats on the Supreme Court, but party is included on the ballot for seats on the state Court of Appeals.
In the Supreme Court race, Superior Court Judge Michael Morgan, a Democrat, seeks to unseat incumbent Justice Robert Edmunds Jr., a Republican. If Edmunds is defeated, the 4-3 Republican-affiliated majority on the court will shift to 4-3 Democratic-affiliated. Supreme Court justices serve eight-year terms.
Judge Morgan has served as a Superior Court Judge in Wake County since 2004. He has also worked as a District Court Judge for Wake County and was the first black mayor of New Bern, where he served for three terms. Justice Edmunds was elected to the NC Supreme Court in 2001. Prior to his service on the Supreme Court he worked in private practice, as a US Attorney and on the NC Court of Appeals.
There are five seats on the NC Court of Appeals on the ballot this November, four are up for reelection and one was left vacant when the sitting judge stepped down.
Dietz Seat: Incumbent Judge Richard Dietz, who is Republican affiliated, will face Judge Vince Rozier, a Democrat who currently serves as a trial court judge.
Hunter Seat: Incumbent Judge Robert Hunter, who is Republican affiliated, will face Abe Jones, a former Wake County Superior Court judge and Democrat.
Stephens Seat: Incumbent Judge Linda Stephens, who is Democratic affiliated, will face Phil Berger, Jr, a Republican and current District Attorney in Rockingham County.
Zachary Seat: Incumbent Judge Valerie Zachary, who is Republican affiliated, will face Judge Rickye McKoy-Mitchell, a Democrat and current District Court Judge in Mecklenburg County.
Greer Seat: Former Judge Martha Greer stepped down from her seat in May; Republican-affiliated Hunter Murphy, a trial attorney, will face Democrat Margaret Eagles, a former Wake County District Court Judge, to fill the seat.