Congressional map changes spur Democrats to dive into races in Wake, Guilford
Updated Dec. 16 with the latest developments.
Experts and observers predicted that North Carolina’s new 2020 congressional map — passed last month by state lawmakers and approved this month by a three-judge panel — would flip two Republican-held U.S. House seats to Democrats.
Candidates and potential candidates in the 2nd and 6th districts are certainly acting that way as the state’s filing period continues.
While big-name Democrats — including former candidates and former officeholders — have jumped into the two races, no Republican has filed to run in the 2nd district (Wake County). Two Republican candidates filed to run in the 6th district (Guilford and part of Forsyth) on Dec. 12, 10 days after the filing period opened.
The primaries in North Carolina are March 3, less than four months after the districts were created. And with all of North Carolina’s 13 districts leaning heavily toward Republicans or Democrats, the congressional delegation may be essentially decided on that date.
Filing ends Dec. 20.
Five seats, including the formerly Republican-leaning 2nd and 6th districts, are considered safe Democratic seats, according to the University of Virginia Center for Politics. The other seats are either safe Republican or, in the case of Reps. Dan Bishop and Richard Hudson, likely Republican seats.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won the new 2nd district with 60.3% of the vote in the 2016 presidential election, and she won the new 6th district with 59.4% of the vote.
2nd district (Wake)
That’s the context behind Rep. George Holding’s decision to not run for re-election. Holding, a Raleigh Republican, is in his fourth term in Congress.
Holding is the incumbent in the 2nd district which currently includes parts or all of Franklin, Harnett, Johnston, Nash, Wake and Wilson counties. The new 2nd district will be a Wake County-only district, and Holding said, “a safe Democrat seat.”
Deborah Ross, a former state director of the ACLU and former state legislator, has filed to run for the seat. Ross, who lost the 2016 Senate race to incumbent Republican Richard Burr, represented parts of Wake County in the statehouse from 2003-13.
“We don’t need more of the typical fights we’re accustomed to from Congress: partisan bickering, stalemates, special interests gaming the system. We need someone working for all of us — fighting for fairness, for equality, for progress. And working to get things done,” Ross says on her website.
Andrew Terrell, a former Obama administration official who led a UK trade office in Raleigh, has also filed to run in the race. Terrell, 32, would be the state’s first openly LGBT member of Congress.
In his role with the United Kingdom Consul for Government & Prosperity, Terrell said many business leaders had concerns with the state because of House Bill 2, the short-lived law that required people in schools and other government buildings to use bathrooms matching the gender on their birth certificates.
Serving in Congress, he told the NC Insider, would be an “opportunity to make a little bit of history that would de-stigmatize the state with regard to HB 2.”
Monika Johnson-Hostler, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault and a member of the Wake County Board of Education, has filed. Unlike Ross and Terrell, Johnson-Hostler was running before the map was redrawn.
The 2nd district, her website says, “deserves a representative who will listen – even to people who disagree – work hard, and stay true to her word, doing what’s best for the district.”
Two candidates who were in the race under the old maps announced this week they have opted not to run.
Retired Marine Scott Cooper, who raised more than $450,000 for a challenge to Holding, said the new map placed his home in the 4th district, represented by Democrat David Price. Jason Butler, the pastor at Open Table United Methodist Church in Raleigh, said in an interview that he got in the race to be a “voice for justice in a rural district,” but that in the newly drawn district that “pathway is not there.” He wrote on his Facebook page: “This is a very different race and one that I feel better positioned to support rather than run.”
On the Republican side, Alan D. Swain of Raleigh filed Dec. 12 to run for the seat.
6th district (Guilford, Forsyth)
Under current districts, Democratic-leaning cities Greensboro and Winston-Salem are represented only by Republicans in Congress. Under the new maps, that’s likely to change.
Rep. Mark Walker, a Greensboro Republican, currently represents the 6th district, which includes parts or all of Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Guilford, Lee, Person, Randolph, and Rockingham counties.
The new 6th district will include all of Guilford County and part of Forsyth County. Walker has not announced his plans for 2020, but has ruled out a run in the 6th district.
Former Democratic House candidates Bruce Davis and Kathy Manning have filed to run in the district and so has state Rep. Derwin Montgomery.
Manning lost her 2018 bid against Rep. Ted Budd in the 13th district. But the Greensboro attorney and community leader was a prolific fundraiser, pulling in more than $4.2 million for her 2018 campaign.
“The Triad deserves a representative who will stand up for our values, fight for our communities, and work for all North Carolinians,” she said in announcing her 2020 run on Twitter.
Davis, who served in the Marines and was a three-term Guilford County commissioner, lost his 2016 race against Budd in the 13th district and also lost a 2014 bid for the Democratic nomination in the 6th district. Davis also lost 2017 and 2019 bids for High Point mayor and two earlier runs for state Senate.
The 31-year old Montgomery, a former Winston-Salem city council member, told The Greensboro News & Record that his core issues are “equity and justice.”
On Thursday, Dec. 12, Republicans Laura Pichardo and Lee Haywood filed to run in the district.
Haywood is the North Carolina Republican Party chairman for the 6th Congressional District. Haywood wrote on his Facebook page that he felt “compelled to take the leap from GOP activist to candidate” and provide “a conservative choice in this upcoming race to the good people of the newly redrawn 6th District.”
“This will not be easy and because of the demographics I am not expecting much support from the establishment GOP but I refuse to sit by and let the Democrat Party obtain this seat without any competition. I expect it to be a mostly grassroots campaign and I will be in it to win,” he wrote.
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This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 1:37 PM with the headline "Congressional map changes spur Democrats to dive into races in Wake, Guilford."