Congressional District 4 Candidate Nida Allam speaks to her supporters at an election night event. Photo by Nelson Kerr-Ritchie.
Historic levels of spending combined with both local and national issues drove some surprising results on March 3rd’s primary elections.
For North Carolina’s Senate seat, former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and Republican official Michael Whately both won their primaries by large margins, and will face each other in November.
The Democratic primary for the 4th Congressional district was very contentious. Due to the heavily Democratic nature of the 4th Congressional District, which includes all of Durham and Counties as well as parts of Chatham and Wake, winning the Democratic primary is effectively winning the election.
County Commissioner Nida Allam and incumbent Valerie Foushee faced off in a nationally prominent race. It involved record amounts of outside spending, with $3 million dollars spent on ads alone. Foushee received significant backing from AI companies like Anthropic, while national progressive groups like Leaders We Deserve, Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party spent a combined $790,000 backing Allam.
On election day, early voting indicated a landslide victory for Foushee by margins larger than 15 percent. However, throughout the night the margin got narrower, and the race finished with Foushee leading by only .96%, or 1,202 votes.
Allam, per North Carolina law, is permitted to request a recount, but chose not to, conceding to Foushee on Wednesday.
Incumbent Sheriff Clarence Birkenhead achieved the highest margin of victory in any race, winning 85.82% against his opponent. He did this after running on a platform of his achievements in office, cracking down on gun violence, and arresting ICE officers.
Candidates endorsed by and members of the Durham Board of Educators Union swept all of the School Board seats. School Board elections are non-partisan single elections consisting of no primaries, so the election on March 3 was the only election phase. The winners will begin serving on the board in December of this year. This new slate of School Board members will head public schooling decisions in Durham, in coordination with Superintendent Dr. Lewis.
Additionally, State senator Sophia Chitlik held on with 65% of the vote against challenger Dedreana Freeman.
More than 65,000 voters in Durham turned out, making a total turnout of 26%. This was higher than the 2022 primaries turnout of 24%, or 56,696.
