Longtime Democratic Congressman G.K. Butterfield will not run for re-election in 2022, WUNC has confirmed.
The 74-year-old U.S. House member is in his ninth term, serving a large geographic swath of northeastern North Carolina that includes Greenville, Rocky Mount, Wilson, Goldsboro and Henderson.
Since winning a special election in 2004, Butterfield has been a reliable progressive vote, supporting healthcare, environmental causes and civil rights. In his eight re-election bids he has often coasted to victory with overwhelming electoral margins.
His current district, drawn to favor a minority candidate, has been reconfigured by the Legislature and is now considered the most competitive of the state’s 14 U.S. House seats.
Butterfield is a former associate justice on the State Supreme Court and a civil rights attorney who previously served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Butterfield is one of just five people of color to represent North Carolina in Congress since Reconstruction.