Diving into North Carolina's most crowded primary
Diving into North Carolina's most crowded primary
On Monday, 12 of 14 GOP candidates vying for an open congressional seat in the Triangle participated in a forum. Here's who stood out for better and for worse:
When I broke down the top 24 primary races to watch in North Carolina, the 13th Congressional District topped the list if for no other reason than the insanity of a 14-person field.
The Raleigh-area district is currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel. But redistricting prompted Nickel to not seek reelection, as the 2022 tossup is now a safe GOP seat.
Spotting an opportunity in one of the state’s most conservative districts, the contest has attracted a whopping 14 Republican congressional hopefuls. No candidate is expected to surpass the 30% threshold needed to win the nomination outright on March 5, though. As a result, the present battle is to be one of the two vote-getters and advance to a second primary on May 14.
In order of how they’ll appear on the primary ballot, the 14 Republicans vying for the seat are attorney Kelly Daughtry, construction project manager Marcus Dellinger, Garner resident David Dixon, former prosecutor Brad Knott, businessman Steve Loor, U.S. Air Force Commander Josh McConkey, Lillington resident James Phillips, 27-year-old Siddhanth Sharma, former Navy Intelligence Officer Matt Shoemaker, Navy veteran Eric Stevenson, businessman Fred Von Canon, author Kenny Xu, truck driver Chris Baker and businessman DeVan Barbour.
Whichever Republican ultimately emerges victorious will square off against Democratic small business owner Frank Pierce in a general election that is all but guaranteed to go the GOP, as it swung for former President Donald Trump by 17 percentage points in 2020.
On Monday, everyone but Dixon and Phillips participated in a GOP forum in Cary hosted by the Western Wake Republican Club.
Here’s what you need to know about the event and which candidates stood out for better and for worse:
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