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It’s a small group at the Nashville Exchange in Nash County on a Monday night, a little more than two weeks before the North Carolina primary election. But each person here is a dedicated Republican and an almost certain voter.
They are hearing from two of the Republicans running in the state’s 1st Congressional District. It’s a race with national attention because the party thinks it can flip the seat red for the first time in more than 140 years.
Issues in this district include farming, where tobacco is very prevalent, health care, there’s been a number of hospital closures, and poverty. While there’s been a decline in the poverty rate, eastern North Carolina has some of the highest rates in the state.
There’s a flood of Republicans running in the primary, which is March 3. The number of candidates makes it hard to predict who could win.
President Donald Trump, an influential voice in Republican primaries, has not endorsed a candidate.
“He’s really proven over and over to be a kingmaker in Republican politics,” said East Carolina University political science professor Peter Francia. “If he had decided to endorse one of the candidates, then I think we would be able to say with a lot of confidence that that candidate had a really good chance of winning.”
Related: A closer look at N.C.’s only toss-up congressional House race
Of the five Republicans running, the candidate who’s probably received the most attention is Laurie Buckhout.
Democratic Rep. Don Davis is seeking reelection in the 1st Congressional District. (AP File Photo/David Yeazell)
She ran for the seat in 2024, losing to Democratic Rep. Don Davis by two points. Despite the loss she has name recognition. She’s a retired Army colonel who recently served as acting assistant secretary of war for cyber policy in the Trump administration.
Asa Buck is the longtime sheriff of Carteret County and is well-known in parts of the district.
State Sen. Bobby Hanig represents some of this U.S. House district in the General Assembly and runs a pool cleaning and maintenance business in Currituck.
Eric Rouse is a construction business owner who lives in Kinston and is a Lenoir County commissioner.
And Ashley-Nicole Russell is a family law attorney with offices throughout the state.
“The high number of candidates means there’s always the potential that a candidate doesn’t reach 30%, and in that case we have a runoff,” Francia told Spectrum News 1. “But my suspicion is that there will be a candidate who exceeds 30%.”
Spectrum News 1 spoke with a number of voters at a poll site in Nash County.
“I’ve met Laurie a couple of different times and I feel like her service to our country and I know that she has worked for Trump and I believe she is dedicated and loyal,” said JoAnn Everette, who said she voted for Buckhout.
“Reducing it down to the top two would have been Laurie Buckhout and Asa Buck. I consider both of them to be near equals in different categories,” said Jerry Barnes. “The deciding factor for me was based on who stood the best chance in beating Don Davis and I felt that was Asa Buck.”
The winner of the Republican primary will take on Davis, who’s vying for his third term.
Davis is arguably one of the most moderate Democrats in the U.S. House and has a record of winning in the district.
This November could be Davis’ toughest election because Republicans in the state legislature recently redrew the district boundaries to heavily favor their party’s candidate. It was part of the rare move of mid-decade redistricting that a number of states have taken in the country, started by Texas at Trump’s urging.
“In this new map I think any political expert would tell you that the Republicans have a very good chance of winning the district this time around,” Francia said about the new 1st Congressional District.
The district is wide, stretching from the Virginia border to the Democratic area of Rocky Mount and now the Republican stronghold of the Outer Banks.
“In the 40 years that we’ve lived here we’ve been redistricted a lot of times, so it’s just a matter of OK, what’s coming up next,” said Republican voter Cynthia Carpenter.
With so many candidates in the Republican primary, this race could be close as the GOP smells a chance to flip a blue seat to try to keep control of the U.S. House in November.
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Reuben Jones
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