While much of the attention this primary season has focused on the contests for U.S. Senate and seats in Congress — as well as an effort to unseat Senate leader Phil Berger — downballot races across the state feature some noteworthy competition.
Here's a few of the races with interesting dynamics on the ballot for Democrats and Republicans:
Democrats fight to keep N.C. Court of Appeals seats
Voters in the March primary won’t see the N.C. Supreme Court race on their ballot, because both Republican Sarah Stevens and incumbent Democratic Justice Anita Earls don’t have any opponents within their party.
But primary voters will have judicial choices to make. On the Democratic ballot, James Whalen and Christine Walczyk will face off for the seat being vacated by N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Allegra Collins, a Democrat.
Walczyk has been a District Court judge in Wake County for 18 years. She says she’s running because she’s “concerned about the public's loss of confidence in the court system.”
Whalen is an attorney with the Raleigh firm Brooks Pierce who previously worked in the N.C. Department of Justice under then-Attorney General Josh Stein. Both candidates have lined up endorsements from prominent elected Democrats.
Whoever wins the primary will face Republican Superior Court Judge Craig Collins in November.
GOP primary voters, meanwhile, will select their party’s nominee to face incumbent Democratic Court of Appeals Judge John Arrowood.
Administrative Law Judge Michael Byrne touts his previous work as an attorney representing law enforcement agencies. His opponent is Matt Smith, a Superior Court judge based in Union County.
Come November, Democrats will be playing defense to keep the only three seats they hold on the Court of Appeals. A sweep for Republicans would mean the GOP holds all 15 seats.
Southern Wake Democrats seek to topple powerful Paré
The southern Wake County N.C. House district represented by Rep. Erin Paré is one of the few remaining Republican-held districts in the county.
Democrats have tried in recent elections to flip the seat, but Paré has held on. As a budget writer, she’s arguably the most powerful GOP elected official in Wake.
Three Democrats are facing off in the March primary, each making the case that they’ve got what it takes to turn this district blue.
Winn Decker brings a career background in education policy and advocacy. Ralph Clements is a healthcare IT consultant. And Marcus Gadson is a law professor at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Decker appears to have the most endorsements from Democratic elected officials in southern Wake County and Wake County commissioners. Gadson’s campaign is backed by Portia Rochelle, former president of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP.
All three campaigns are focused on common priorities for Democrats, such as education, affordability, healthcare and independent redistricting. All three candidates live in Fuquay-Varina.
Whichever Democrat wins the primary will face an expensive race in November as their party tries to pick up a House seat and make it easier to uphold Gov. Josh Stein’s vetoes. Paré won by more than 3,000 votes in 2024.
Who will become the state’s most influential District Attorney?
After serving in the role since 2014, Lorrin Freeman isn’t seeking re-election this year as Wake County’s district attorney.
Because the state capital is located in Wake County, the district attorney here handles a variety of political corruption cases, from voter fraud to government malfeasance. It’s a local elected position with statewide impacts.
And because Wake County leans left, Freeman’s successor will likely be determined in the Democratic primary in March.
The best-known candidate is former Congressman Wiley Nickel, who originally ran for U.S. Senate before dropping out to endorse former Gov. Roy Cooper.
But Nickel has never worked as a prosecutor (he’s a defense attorney), and that’s prompted Freeman to endorse Sherita Walton, who’s been an assistant district attorney in Manhattan and Wake County. She’s currently a city attorney advising the Raleigh Police Department, and if elected, she’d be Wake’s first-ever Black DA.
The third candidate is Melanie Shekita, who’s spent decades as a prosecutor for the Wake County District Attorney’s office and currently leads its Special Victims Unit.
Interestingly, Nickel has backing from numerous elected Democrats in local government and the legislature, while Shekita and Walton are touting endorsements from judges and prosecutors.
Republicans vie for a shot at flipping a Wake Senate seat
The Senate district held by Democratic Sen. Terence Everitt is likely Republicans’ best shot at winning back a Senate seat in Wake County.
The district lines pair northern and eastern Wake with more conservative Granville County to the north, which makes it one of a few truly competitive Senate districts in the state.
We can expect big spending in this race, as Senate Republicans would love to oust Everitt. The attorney from Wake Forest is known for blunt rhetoric that GOP leaders have called an “unacceptable lack of decorum.”
Republican primary voters will choose between two candidates to face Everitt. Cheryl Caulfield has served on the Wake County school board since 2022, and she’s endorsed by prominent Republicans like State Auditor Dave Boliek and Rep. Erin Paré.
Her opponent is Chris Stock, an attorney and lobbyist who previously worked as an aide to Sen. Brent Jackson, a top budget writer and leader on agricultural issues. Stock appears to be the preferred candidate of current Senate Republicans, many of whom have headlined his fundraisers.
Stock is also backed by Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. His campaign is calling for tax credits for first-time homebuyers, increased teacher pay and an end to cashless bail.
Caulfield’s campaign highlights her support for “Opportunity Scholarship” private school vouchers, a crackdown on youth vaping, and limitations on increases in home property tax valuations.
The battle of Durham Democrats for Senate
Speaking of Durham, it’s the scene of a noteworthy Democratic legislative primary. Two years ago, primary voters here booted out their longtime senator, Democrat Mike Woodard.
Instead, they chose Sophia Chitlik, a political newcomer who’s less willing than Woodard to cross the aisle and work with the Senate’s Republican majority. Now Chitlik is facing a challenge from a former Durham City Council member.
DeDreana Freeman lost her re-election bid to the council last year, and soon after launched a campaign for Senate.
The race between Freeman and Chitlik doesn’t center around any major policy differences, but the two candidates bring differing backgrounds and styles of politics.
Freeman has been a political figure in Durham for longer than Chitlik, but she’s had her share of controversies, including heated confrontations with fellow elected officials that have led to accusations of punches and pokes.
She still has a strong base of support in Durham, but that personality could create some tension in the prim-and-proper Senate chamber if she’s elected.
Chitlik, meanwhile, touts a record of strong constituent service in her first term in the Senate, and she filed a bill to strip state funding from “crisis pregnancy centers” that oppose abortion. She has been less critical of Israel’s war in Gaza than Freeman and other Democrats. She also broke with Democrats on an effort to ban the sale of raw milk.
Chitlik has a sizeable fundraising advantage over Freeman, who’d raised less than $2,000 for her Senate campaign as of Dec. 31.
Chitlik raised $59,000 last year, including a $6,800 donation from her father-in-law, former insurance executive Adam Abram, who chairs the board of The Assembly news website.
Chitlik is an investor who worked in the Obama administration; her husband Ben Abram owns Durham-based energy companies that have been accused of fraud by a federal agency, Inside Climate News reported last year.
Freeman runs a nonprofit advisory firm and previously worked at Clean Energy Durham and the East Durham Children’s Initiative.
Dixon’s unusual opponent
A Duplin County farmer who’s served in the N.C. House since 2011, Rep. Jimmy Dixon is a key leader on agricultural legislation, and he hasn’t faced much opposition in his home district.
But in next Tuesday’s primary, the 81-year-old faces a challenge from Marcella Barbour, a Brazilian-born actress and model who also lists time in the U.S. Navy and in the classroom on her resume.
Barbour is trying to convince voters in this rural district that Dixon’s record isn’t conservative enough. She says Dixon hasn’t fought hard enough to pass a repeal of concealed carry handgun requirements (a bill that’s awaiting a veto override vote in the House; Dixon did vote for the bill last year). And she wants to see additional restrictions on abortion.
Barbour moved to Duplin County from California a few years ago, and her husband, fellow actor and military veteran William Barbour, is mounting his own primary challenge against Republican Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson.
Marcella Barbour lists endorsements from the gun-rights group Grass Roots North Carolina and the Conservative Coalition of North Carolina. Both Barbours have been criticizing the incumbents for the legislature’s failure to pass a budget, and they say their opponents have been missing local candidate forums.
Dixon, meanwhile, has been active in another House GOP primary, supporting a challenger to House Freedom Caucus Chairman Keith Kidwell.
