Primary elections for North Carolina were held on March 3rd, and this series of elections will be followed by the states general elections on Nov. 3rd. NC is considered a swing state, meaning that its citizens will frequently vote for both Republicans and Democrats statewide. Primary elections allow voters to choose which candidates will be present in their state’s general elections. These elections can be both partisan and nonpartisan, and as stated by the UNC School of Government, “North Carolina law permits cities, towns, and villages to use either partisan elections or any one of three versions of nonpartisan elections.”
In short, a partisan election will feature the political party affiliations of a candidate on the ballot, while a nonpartisan election does not. Results from all primaries have come in, including NC’s five district races, Republican and Democratic seats for the Senate, the United States House, the State Senate, the State House, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
In the Democratic Primary election for the senate, there were a total of six candidates, the top three being Marcus Williams, Justin Dues, and Roy Cooper, for a total of over 827,742 votes. According to The New York Times, former state governor Roy Cooper, a moderate Democrat who served as state governor from 2017 to 2025 was the clear favorite in this primary election, winning over 92% of the votes (761,333). The Republican Primary election for the Senate featured a total of seven candidates, listing the top three as Thomas Johnson, Donald Brown, and Michael Whatley. Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley won the race with a total of 405,138 out of the 627,400 votes.
Back in October of 2025, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a new congressional map. This map was created using legislative and congressional redistricting, which is defined as, “…the process of defining the districts from which public officials are elected,” by the North Carolina General Assembly. A Politico article by Andrew Howard written in Oct. of last year details how NC Republicans passed the new congressional map. Their aim was to create another red-leaning seat in this year’s elections. The redraw of this map was similar to efforts in both Texas and Missouri, creating the seventh new red-leaning seat nationwide since 2024.
Fast-forward to 2026, and we’ve been given the results featured in the United States House primary after the creation of the new congressional boundaries. Key races featured by The New York Times include the Republican primary race for District 1 and the Democratic primary for District 4. In the 1st District, Laurie Buckhout won the race as called by The Associated Press. Candidates featured in this race included Bobby Hanig, Asa Buck, and Laurie Buckhout, who won 26,623 out of 67,374 votes. Candidate Valerie Foushee won the Democratic primary election for NC’s 4th district. She won against candidates Mary Patternson and Nida Allam, taking 61,776 out of 125,655 total votes.
Representative Foushee’s win has been considered a key congressional achievement for historic representation. Not only is she the first woman to represent North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, she is also the first African American. There are a total of five districts in North Carolina, and 10 District primary races, where five Democratic and five Republican representative wins were featured. In NC’s State Senate races, there were a total of three Democratic representatives and two Republican representative wins, the same outcome present in the State House. Other important races included both the State Court of Appeals races and the Supreme Court, concluding the results for the 2026 primary elections.
