North Carolina voters finalized the November ballot for a high-profile Senate race and several House races, but one marquee contest in the Triangle region remained too early to call early Wednesday.
Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley and Democrat Roy Cooper, the former governor, both handily turned back primary opponents and will compete for the open Senate seat, which could determine control of the chamber.
In the battleground 1st District, retired Army Col. Laurie Buckhout won the Republican nomination to take on Democratic Rep. Don Davis. Buckhout was the GOP 2024 pick and lost to Davis by less than 2 points. But that was before the North Carolina legislature redrew its congressional map and made the district more favorable to the GOP. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Tilt Republican.
In the Asheville area, farmer Jamie Ager is the Democrats’ pick to compete against two-term Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards. Ager, the favorite of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, edged out four other Democrats.
But in the 4th District, Democratic Rep. Valerie P. Foushee and Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam remained locked in a tight race early Wednesday,
The blue-on-blue battle reflected stark divisions within the Democratic Party, shaped by a number of factors, including age and ideology — as well as dueling strategies about how aggressively to push back against President Donald Trump.
Foushee was first elected in 2022, after she beat Allam by about nine points in the Democratic primary. Long a reliable Democratic vote, Foushee is also a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has highlighted her support of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. She had the backing of much of the state’s Democratic establishment, including Gov. Josh Stein.
U.S. support for Israel in the aftermath of the war in Gaza emerged as a key divide. Foushee had the backing of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in her 2022 run, but announced in August she would no longer accept money from the group. Still in the waning days of the campaign, an outside group that Allam’s supporters say is tied to AIPAC spent $600,000 on ads supporting Foushee.
The race also generated an influx of cash from the crypto and artificial intelligence agencies, which supported Foushee, the co-chair of the House Democratic Commission on AI.
Allam’s candidacy was boosted by a new group formed to counter AIPAC’s influence. And in the final days of the campaign, the joint attack on Iran provided another key line of attack for Allam.
