North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore has won the Republican primary in the 14th Congressional District, which state lawmakers recently redrew to help launch him to Washington.
With all precincts reporting, he received 75% of votes.
Moore is one of the most powerful lawmakers in the state, a lawyer from Kings Mountain who was first elected to the General Assembly in 2002 and has served as North Carolina House speaker since 2015. Democrat Jeff Jackson now represents the 14th District, but after the district was redrawn to eliminate a large part of Charlotte and heavily favor Republicans, he decided to run for state attorney general instead.
The new district now stretches from the edges of Mecklenburg County west to Rutherford County and includes Burke County.
Moore faced some controversies last year before announcing his decision to run. A lawsuit alleged he had a sexual relationship with a state government employee. A government watchdog questioned his use of campaign funds to pay Moore’s own law firm for rent.
Jeff Gregory and Lillian Joseph also ran in the Republican primary.
