With new NC congressional districts finalized, several announce candidacy | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the Carolina Journal. The author of this post is CJ Staff.

    Now that the North Carolina General Assembly has passed congressional maps, candidates are announcing their intentions to run for one of the states 14 congressional seats. Among them, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C, will seek re-election. McHenry had been serving as the interim speaker of the U.S. House between the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, from the top post, and Wednesday's election of Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La.

    Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., also announced her plan to run for reelection on Thursday, as did Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., in the ninth congressional district.

    "As your Congressman, I am proud to have worked alongside President Donald Trump to make America the most prosperous and safe country on Earth," said Hudson in a news release out on Wednesday. "But Joe Biden's failed leadership is destroying all of that work. I want to continue fighting for our men and women in uniform, veterans, parents' rights, farmers, the Second Amendment, and small businesses."

    According to the John Locke Foundation's Civitias Partisan Index, the maps passed this week indicate 10 likely seats for Republicans, three for Democrats and a toss-up seat in Congressional District 1, currently held by Democrat Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C. The evaluation uses the base partisan leanings of each district to create a leaning score compared to the state as a whole.

    In this study, Democrat representatives Deborah Ross, NC-2, Valerie Foushee, NC-4, and Alma Adams, NC-12 are likely safe if they choose to seek re-election. Ross has already indicated her plan to run for a third term representing part of Wake County. The path forward is less clear for Democrat Representatives Wiley Nickel, Jeff Jackson, and Kathy Manning, who's seats now lean-Republican in the new maps.


    Jackson has announced his intention to run for the Democrat nomination for North Carolina's attorney general. Jackson ran in the Democrat U.S. Senate primary in 2022, but dropped out and endorsed Cheri Beasley, who was defeated by Ted Budd in the general election. On Thursday, Jackson released a TikTok video depicting him boxing. In the video he referred to "corruption" in the drawing of the state's congressional maps, promising to fight "corruption" in the state. Jackson would likely face Congressman Dan Bishop, R-N.C. for the AG post in the general election. Bishop had already announced that he would run for attorney general, rather than seeking re-election to Congress. That leaves Congressional District 6 open.

    Jumping into that race this week, former congressman Mark Walker announced Wednesday that he is dropping out of North Carolina's Republican gubernatorial primary, and will seek to re-claim the CD6 seat in Congress. Walker held that seat from 2015 to 2021. He will face Christian Castelli in the CD6 Republican primary. Castelli was the 2022 Republican nominee for that seat and lost to Democrat Kathy Manning in the general election.