Key General Assembly primaries to watch… 

January 13th, 2024

Welcome in on this Saturday morning.

Don’t look now, but North Carolina’s primary election is right around the corner. Early voting starts February 15, and voters can begin receiving absentee ballots on January 19 – this Friday. 

Presidential and gubernatorial contests claim most of the media attention, but we offer below a rundown of state legislative primary races to watch. It’s not an exhaustive list, but covers what we see as the most impactful sample.

***

We’ll start with the state House – the only chamber featuring primaries against incumbent Republicans.

House District 9, Pitt County (Incumbent: Republican Rep. Tim Reeder)

Rep. Reeder has served one term in the House. An emergency room physician, he has begun to carve out a niche in health policy. He introduced a number of bills on the subject, some of which were met with resistance from the non-provider side of the health care industry.

Reeder will face primary challenger Tony Moore, who lost a 2023 race for Winterville Town Council and whom Reeder defeated in 2022 by 15 percentage points.

In an interview with the Greenville Daily Reflector, Moore blamed his 2022 loss on TV station WNCT, which Moore said ran an ad from an old campaign saying he was running for state Senate.

The district favors Republicans and voted for Trump over Biden by more than 7%. 


House District 25, Nash County (Incumbent: Republican Rep. Allen Chesser)

Rep. Chesser, an Iraq war veteran and former law enforcement officer, has served one term in the state House. He challenged former U.S. Rep. George Holding in a primary in 2018, but lost by more than 50 percentage points. Chesser has the backing of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Americans for Prosperity.

Chesser will face Yvonne McLeod, an educator and a Jamaican-born naturalized citizen. McLeod narrowly lost to Chesser in the 2022 primary. She has endorsements from two Nash County commissioners.

The district is a tossup.


House District 27, Northampton County (Incumbent: Democratic Rep. Michael Wray)

Rep. Wray, a 10-term incumbent, has long been a target of the left wing of his party. In 2023, he supported the state budget and several other measures that earned him ire from organizations like the Young Democrats of North Carolina, which endorsed his primary opponent, Rodney Pierce.

Pierce is a social studies teacher and, as the News & Observer reported, one of the plaintiffs in a redistricting lawsuit. Wray defeated his 2022 primary challenger by 60 points, but opposition to his candidacy from his left flank may be more public and organized than in years past.

Wray, like every other Democratic member that developed a habit of breaking ranks to vote on some Republican supported legislation, is being primaried. 

The district favors Democrats, having voted for Biden over Trump by more than 20%. 


House District 82, Cabarrus County (Incumbent: Republican Rep. Kevin Crutchfield)

Rep. Crutchfield, a small business owner, is a first-term incumbent who faces 2022 House candidate Brian Echeverria.

Echeverria, who lost to Democrat Diamond Staton-Williams by less than three points, is running this year in the 82^nd district after last year’s redraw. The 2022 contest drew statewide headlines for a misleading ad that purported to show Echeverria’s mugshot, but the photo wasn’t real. Echeverria was charged in Florida when he was 20 years old for passing a bad check, but was not convicted.

The district will likely elect the winning Republican, and voted for Trump over Biden by more than 10%.  


Senate District 13, Wake County (Open/features Democratic Sen. Lisa Grafstein in a district switch)

Sen. Grafstein, in her first term, made headlines late last year for announcing she would run in a different Wake County district in 2024 instead of challenging Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, with whom she was newly double-bunked. The state Republican Party unsuccessfully called on Grafstein to resign over the switch, arguing the Constitution requires her to live in the district she currently represents.

But the real intrigue lies on the Republican side. Two Republicans will face each other in the primary. One is Vicki Harry, a small business owner and former teacher. The other is Scott Lassiter, who invited tawdry headlines after suing House Speaker Tim Moore for alienation of affection. The lawsuit caused rampant media intrigue about his soon-to-be-ex wife’s relationship with Speaker Moore, and his candidacy has generated eye rolls from some political observers.

The district is a tossup, and voted for Biden over Trump by just over a point. 


Senate District 3, Lenoir County (Incumbent: Retiring Republican Sen. Jim Perry)

Sen. Jim Perry surprised most political observers when he announced his retirement shortly before the end of the candidate filing period, citing a deluge of personal family matters requiring his attention.

One of two Republicans will likely take his place. Former Rep. Michael Speciale served four terms in the House, founded the Freedom Caucus, and has a history of eyebrow-raising remarks and inflammatory legislative maneuvers. In 2015, he reportedly called former President Barack Obama an “Islamic son of —.” In 2017, he sought to amend the state Constitution in a way that would allow secession from the union.

The other Republican is attorney Bob Brinson, an Army veteran. Brinson will likely see formal and informal support for his campaign from corners that do not wish to see Speciale return to the legislature.

The district is safe Republican, and voted for Trump by more than 15%. 


Senate District 22, Durham County (Incumbent: Democratic Sen. Mike Woodard)

Sen. Woodard is a six-term incumbent and popular among both Republicans and Democrats on Jones Street. He’s a progressive on most issues, and speaks up often on those matters, but he is also known to work closely with the majority on less charged policy subjects where there’s room for agreement.

In 2023, he ran unsuccessfully in the primary for Mayor of Durham while still retaining his Senate seat. He finished in second place, 23 points behind winner Leo Williams. That loss may have exposed a potential weakness, and indeed Sophia Chitlik Abram filed to run against him.

Abram, whose campaign bio touts her membership in “Funders for Birth Equity and Justice,” is a former Obama administration official. She was endorsed by the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.

The district is safe Democrat and voted for Biden by more than 57%. 

Missed anyone on your radar? Shoot us a note and tell us why you’re keeping an eye on it.