Blue wave included some GOP strongholds in Charlotte region

Election night results are rolling in, and as polls predicted, a massive blue wave hit the United States as Democrats took both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. 

That trend continued in North Carolina with some expected victories, like former Gov. Roy Cooper’s defeat of Republican Michael Whatley for Senate. But the wave also brought some stunning upsets, crashing into districts and municipalities that have been reliably red before. 

A major upset 

One of the biggest political surprises of the night was Democrat LaKesha Womack’s defeat of Tim Moore, the powerful Republican North Carolina legislator currently representing North Carolina’s 14th congressional district.​​ 

Womack, an ordained minister and community organizer, campaigned on accountability for elected officials and affordability, and the controversial — and sometimes scandalous — record of her opponent. She built a loyal coalition of supporters, including Democrats and some independents and Republicans who were disappointed with Moore’s leadership. 

To say Womack’s win was unexpected is an understatement. House District 14 is a gerrymandered district that Moore, when he was still in the state General Assembly, voted to redistrict in Republicans’ favor, before he ran for the seat and cruised to victory in 2024. The district currently includes deep red counties like Gaston, Cleveland, Burke and Rutherford counties, and parts of Polk County, along with a portion of blue Mecklenburg County.

Democrats have gotten creative in their tactics to try to defeat Moore. In the Republican primary, Kate Barr, a progressive, ran as a Republican candidate to try to make headway in the gerrymandered district. But Moore still won by a massive margin and secured the Republican candidacy for reelection.

On election night, Womack had a comfortable lead around 8:40 p.m. — 56.1% to Moore’s 43.9%. As the night went on, the race became a nail-biter, but Moore was never in the lead.

By 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 4, the final numbers were 51.1% to Moore’s 48.9%. At the time, Moore had 6,415 fewer votes than Womack — and with only an estimated 2,000 votes left to be counted, he was unable to bridge the gap. 

Wins for Democrats at the state level

In the 12th congressional district, Democratic incumbent Alma Adams defeated Republican challenger Jack Codiga by a wide margin — Codiga did not receive even 20% of the vote. And in northern Mecklenburg’s House District 98, Beth Helfrich secured another term in the General Assembly, fending off her Republican challenger John Rhodes. 

In the 8th congressional district, controversial Republican incumbent Mark Harris narrowly defeated Democrat Colby Watson, with 50.39% of the vote to Watson’s 48.62%. Bo Whitehead, the progressive Green Party candidate, got nearly 1% of the vote. U.S. House District 8 covers Union, Stanly, Montgomery, Richmond, Scotland and Anson counties, and parts of Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and Robeson counties. 

Cabarrus County 

Charlotte-area political junkies have been watching Cabarrus County closely this election cycle, predicting it could flip blue. And on election night, that prediction came true.

At the local level, every person on the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners and the school board is now a Democrat. Democrats Ingrid Nurse, Daniel Redding and Phillip Henry defeated their Republican challengers by thousands of votes. And the Board of Education tells the same story — Democrats Pamela Escobar, Mishell Williams and Courtney Steinberg won, defeating three Republican candidates. 

Every General Assembly seat representing Cabarrus County also flipped blue, except two. 

The two Senate seats were up for grabs. In Senate District 35, incumbent Todd Johnson defended his seat from Democrat Christine Winward. 

Perhaps the most closely watched was the race between Democrat April Cook and Republican Kevin Crutchfield for state Senate District 34. Cook won by a 16-point margin, gathering 57.66% of the vote to Crutchfield’s 42.34%. 

In the state House, two out of three seats representing Cabarrus are now blue. In District 82, Brian Echevarría, the Republican incumbent, lost to Democrat Chris Bishopp, getting 44.02% of the votes to Bishopp’s nearly 56%. District 73 also flipped blue as Democrat Thomas Monks unseated Republican incumbent Jonathan Almond.  

Republicans held onto power in District 83, where incumbent Grant Campbell defeated Democrat Johnnie Jones. 

Gaston County 

In Gaston County, a write-in candidate for the Riverbend Township seat on the Board of Commissioners, Charley Killian, gathered around 15,000 votes, or about 26% of the vote, his challenge of Republican incumbent Chad Brown. Brown easily secured another term on the county commission with 73.38% of the vote, or 42,628 votes. 

There was momentum behind Killian’s campaign, but ultimately, trying to defeat a longtime incumbent as a write-in candidate was too difficult a task. Killian previously told The Election Hub that even if he lost his race, he wanted Gaston County citizens to “feel like they’ve got a voice and they’re heard.” 

Gaston County voters also mostly voted for Republicans across the ballot, although some progressive newcomers came close to winning. For the Gastonia Township seat on the Board of Commissioners, Jessica Moreno received 48.39% of the vote compared to Republican incumbent Tom Keigher’s 51.61%. 

There were two notable exceptions. Democratic state Supreme Court candidate Anita Earls received about 1,000 more votes than Republican Sarah Stevens did in the county. And in the race for state House District 109, Democrat Mark Carver, a professor at Gaston College, defeated Donnie Loftis, the Republican incumbent who attended the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. 

Catawba County

The GOP retained their stronghold in Catawba County, with Republicans winning every contested election. Two Democratic school board incumbents also ran unopposed for reelection, securing another term. 

Union County

The blue wave reached some unlikely shores.

This midterm was the first election since municipal elections in Union County became partisan, after Monroe was quietly added to the final iteration of a state House bill that altered the city’s charter. 

In Union County, Democrat Surluta Anthony was elected mayor of Monroe over her Republican opponent, David Dotson. Monroe voters also elected a Democrat, Kensley McCoy, to city council by a comfortable margin with 28.2% of the vote. 

The mayoral race has been a tense one. Dotson, a Monroe City Councilman and former mayor pro tem, was endorsed by the city’s current mayor, Robert Burns, who has been the subject of controversies throughout his time in office since 2023. Burns and Dotson nearly always vote the same way on city matters. 

Dotson’s alignment with Burns seems to have hurt him rather than helped — even as conservative voters in the city also elected two ultra-conservative Republicans, Michelle Ball and Heidi Petterson, to city council.

However, the GOP held strong in other races. Republicans won every available seat on the Union County Board of Commissioners, ensuring the board stays fully red. Voters in Union County also went for Republican Mark Harris for Congress over Democrat Colby Watson.

Rachel Black is a reporter and writer for The Election Hub. Reach her at rachel@theelectionhub.org.

The Election Hub is a project of the Civic Knowledge Initiative, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Charlotte that makes it easy for every citizen to find, understand and act on reliable information about their local government and elected officials.