North Carolina Democrats flip four House seats drawn to elect Republicans

The Associated Press called five North Carolina U.S. House races for Democrats on Thursday, and four of them are seats that flipped out of Republican hands. Every one of those districts was drawn to favor the GOP. By Thursday, the AP had called nine of the state's 14 House seats for Democrats — and none for Republicans.

That's a whiplash result for a delegation that walked into Tuesday with 10 Republicans and four Democrats. North Carolina's congressional map was redrawn in 2023 to heavily favor Republican candidates, and it delivered in 2024: the 14th District was the tightest of the flipped seats, with the Republican winning by about 16%, while the 6th was the least competitive, going GOP by more than 38%.

Democrats also held ground where Republicans tried to squeeze them out. The AP called northeastern North Carolina's 1st Congressional District for incumbent Democratic Rep. Don Davis. Legislative Republicans redrew that district last year to make it friendlier to the GOP, pulling Republican-leaning counties out of the 3rd District to do it. As of Thursday, Davis led Republican challenger Laurie Buckhout by more than 10,000 votes — a wider margin than he managed in 2024.

Two races are still hanging by a thread. In the 3rd District, Republican incumbent Greg Murphy leads Democrat Raymond Smith by just 233 votes, in a district where Democrats didn't even field a candidate in 2024, according to NPR. That one looks bound for a recount. In the 5th, Democratic challenger Chuck Hubbard is ahead of 11-term Republican incumbent Virginia Foxx by 99 votes — another likely recount.

Finger-pointing has already started inside the GOP. U.S. Rep. Brian Jack, a Georgia Republican angling to replace Hudson as NRCC chair, wrote to fellow House Republicans that some GOP lawmakers may have helped create the brutal environment, pointing to Senate Republicans pulling their support in North Carolina weeks ago. Democrat Roy Cooper won the state's open U.S. Senate seat by nearly 20%.

If the uncalled races break the way they're trending, North Carolina's congressional delegation would invert completely — from 10 Republicans and four Democrats to 10 Democrats and four Republicans.