North Carolina's biggest cluster of a congressional race gets even messier

In the Greensboro-area 6th Congressional District, rescinded endorsements, outside spending and outright deception are taking center stage.

Don’t call it House of Cards and don’t call it Veep. Call it North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District—where drama and comedy unite to form what is arguably the state’s most unpredictable primary contest.

The six-candidate field of Republicans includes three leading contenders (former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, businessman Bo Hines and lobbyist Addison McDowell), one with decent odds (retired Army Lt. Col. Christian Castelli) and two with fairly longshot odds (former High Point Mayor Jay Wagner and plastic surgeon Mary Ann Contogiannis). No Democrats are running, effectively giving the GOP victor a ticket straight to D.C. in 2025.

The primary contest has torn the Republican Party apart.

Former President Donald Trump and prominent state officeholders, including Senate leader Phil Berger and U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, are backing McDowell. Club for Growth, an influential D.C. group, is backing Hines. A number of Walker’s former U.S. House colleagues are backing him. And an obscure North Carolina political group is spreading lots of misinformation in its efforts to elect Castelli.

But to truly understand this race, one must look at what’s happened in recent days and what will take place in the days to come. So for this edition, let’s dive into the forces at play for the four major candidates that makes this contest so unpredictable.