2026 General Election: November 3, 2026. New info launches early October.
2026
ELECTION
What You Need to Know Before Voting
Federal
U.S. Senate
U.S. Senators serve six-year terms. There are six Democrats and seven Republicans running for this office, including former N.C. Governor Roy Cooper and former Republican party chair Michael Whatley. This is a complete list of the roles and responsibilities of the U.S. Senate.
U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. House of Representatives members are elected every two years. This includes a detailed description of the responsibilities of members of Congress. While redistricting has been a significant topic for North Carolina overall, the boundaries for the counties that The Election Hub covers have not changed since the last federal election in 2024.
State
N.C. General Assembly
The entire North Carolina state legislature (also known as the General Assembly which includes both N.C. Senate and N.C. House of Representatives) is up for election every two years. Every office will be on the ballot in the general election in November but only a handful are on the ballot during the primary. The key roles of the General Assembly are to determine the state tax rate, determine the state’s budget and create state laws.
N.C. Statewide Judicial Offices
The terms for the N.C. Supreme Court and the N.C. Appeals Court are eight years. They are staggered terms; four seats in the state Supreme Court and the state Appeals Court are up for election in 2026. Only two Appeals Court seats will appear on the primary ballot.
Municipal
Local Government Roles
Local elections in 2026 include a variety of seats for county Boards of Commissioners and Boards of Education.
Legal-Related Roles
Legal-related offices on the ballot in 2026 include county sheriffs, district attorneys, court clerks, and district and superior court judges.
What is a primary?
A primary election is a “run-off” where contestants from one political party compete with one another. The winner of a primary will be on the ballot for the general election. If there is only one contestant (or no contestants at all) from a political party running, there will not be a primary for that party for that race.
Can anyone vote in a primary?
North Carolina has partisan primaries that are open to unaffiliated voters. Any registered Democratic, Republican or unaffiliated voter can vote in this North Carolina primary. Specifically, registered Republicans and registered Democrats can only vote in their party’s primary. Unaffiliated voters can select which primary they want to vote in. That said, other voters registered with third parties (e.g. Libertarian, Green Party, No Labels) are not eligible to vote in this primary.
Why is voting in primaries important?
In general, voter participation rates for primaries are much lower than for general elections. On average across North Carolina, fewer than 20% of voters voted in the last midterm primary in 2022. When a minority of voters vote, the voice of a community or region is not reflected in results. Furthermore, because certain regions are heavily skewed toward a single political party, the only meaningful choice that voters have to hold elected officials to account is during primaries. Several Mecklenburg County, North Carolina races for instance have no Republican opponents (such as the county sheriff), so those races will be determined by this primary.
Did you know...
The order that candidates appear on the ballot is determined by a bingo machine? A ball with a letter from a bingo machine is selected first, and then a coin is tossed to decide if the candidates are then listed in alphsbetical order or reverse alphabetical order. The letter picked for 2026 was F and the coin toss was tails, which means candidates will appear in reverse alphabetical order.
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