RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina is teeming with candidates for Congress in Tuesday’s primaries, as three of the state’s 13 U.S. House incumbents are not seeking reelection.
Nearly 30 primary candidates are scrambling for the seats now held by three Republicans.
Reps. Mark Walker of Greensboro and George Holding of Raleigh are leaving because their districts changed dramatically after state legislators redrew the congressional map 3½ months ago. The redistricting made Holding’s 2nd District and Walker’s 6th District extremely likely for Democrats to win in November, politicians from both parties say.
In the far-western 11th District, where GOP Rep. Mark Meadows also announced he wouldn’t run again, the retooled boundaries still favor a Republican, said Chris Cooper, a Western Carolina University political science professor.
“All three tend to lean toward one party or the other, so it puts an extra spotlight on the primary,” Cooper said.
Five Democrats are running in their 6th District primary and four Democrats are seeking their party’s nomination in the 2nd District.
In the 11th District, 12 Republicans are on the primary ballot hoping to succeed Meadows, a former House Freedom Caucus leader and one of President Donald Trump’s strongest congressional allies. The large number of candidates increases the likelihood of a May GOP runoff. The leading vote-getter Tuesday would have to get above 30% of the vote to avoid one. Five Democrats also filed for the seat.
Meadows announced the day before the December filing deadline that he wouldn’t seek reelection, suggesting he could soon have a job with Trump. His surprise departure, which came so late that candidates who had already committed to run for other elected offices were barred from switching, still set off an avalanche of Republican entries in the final hours.
Some disgruntled GOP activists felt that Meadows concealed his decision from them, while Haywood County Republican official Lynda Bennett, a friend of Meadows’ wife, announced her candidacy within a few hours of the congressman’s announcement.
Weeks later, Meadows endorsed Bennett, even as his former longtime congressional aide Wayne King decided to run. In a video, Meadows called Bennett a “conservative outsider, not a professional politician” who would work with Trump to “drain the swamp and keep America great.”
Two PACs associated with the House Freedom Caucus and the Senate Conservatives Action super PAC have spent over $550,000 to help Bennett’s candidacy, according to campaign finance reports.
Bennett, a real-estate company owner, faced additional criticism when an old audio recording surfaced that some said reflects her lack of wholehearted support for Trump. Bennett told The (Waynesville) Mountaineer the recorded comments were doctored and taken out of context. She blamed ousted local GOP leaders for the recording’s release.
At least two other candidates are benefiting from super PAC support, finance reports show.
A pro-veterans group has spent at least $360,000 helping Dan Driscoll, an Iraq War veteran and investment firm partner. And an American Dental Association committee had spent $95,000 backing retiring state Sen. Jim Davis, an orthodontist.
Top candidate fundraisers entering the primary’s final weeks also included Charles Archerd, who ran against Meadows in the 2018 primary; real estate investment company CEO Madison Cawthorn of Hendersonville; and Vance Patterson, who lost to Meadows in a 2012 GOP primary runoff.
In the Democratic primary, the leading fundraiser has been retired Air Force Col. Moe Davis of Asheville. Once a chief prosecutor for military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Davis later became a critic of how cases there were being handled.
Other candidates are Phillip Price, who lost to Meadows in the 2018 general election; Steve Woodsmall, who lost to Price in the 2018 primary; Gina Collias, who ran for Congress as a Republican in 2018 in another district; and Michael O’Shea of Asheville. Green Party candidate Tamara Zwinak and Libertarian Tracey DeBruhl already are on the general election ballot.
The redrawn 2nd District, which covers much of Wake County, attracted Deborah Ross, a former state legislator and 2016 Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, to run.
Also seeking the Democratic nod are Wake County school board member Monika Johnson-Hostler; Andy Terrell, who recently worked for an organization that attempts to bring British companies to North Carolina; and Ollie Nelson, a Baptist church minister. The primary winner takes on Republican Alan Swain and Libertarian Jeff Matemu in the fall.
Ross, who lost in 2016 to Republican Sen. Richard Burr, is an attorney. Johnson-Hostler is executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
The new 6th District now covers all of Guilford County and part of Forsyth County. Kathy Manning, an attorney who lost to 13th District GOP Rep. Ted Budd in 2018, is on the Democratic ballot, as is Bruce Davis, a former Guilford County commissioner who lost to Budd in 2016. First-term state Rep. Derwin Montgomery and former Rep. Ed Hanes Jr. are running. Rhonda Foxx, the former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, is also a candidate.
The winner takes on the GOP primary victor, either Laura Pichardo or Lee Haywood.
Three incumbents have primaries on Tuesday: Adams in the 12th District; Democratic Rep. David Price in the 4th; and Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry in the 10th.
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