How North Carolina Democrats flipped several House seats in historically GOP districts

The Associated Press has called five U.S. House races in North Carolina for Democrats, all of them in districts drawn to favor Republican candidates.

Of those districts, four are flipping from Republican control.

As of Thursday, the AP had called nine of the state's 14 House seats for Democrats and none for Republicans. It's a startling result for a delegation that went into Tuesday with 10 Republicans and four Democrats.

Races called Thursday that flipped from Republican to Democratic control included:

High Point Mayor Cyril Jefferson over first-term incumbent Rep. Addison McDowell in the Triad's Sixth Congressional District.

Former West Virginia State Senator Richard Ojeda over National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Hudson in the Ninth Congressional District.

Paul Barringer over first-term incumbent Rep. Brad Knott in the 13th Congressional District, which wraps around the Raleigh exurbs.

LaKesha Womack over first-term incumbent Rep. Tim Moore, who previously served as speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives, in the 14th Congressional District.

North Carolina's Congressional map was redrawn in 2023 to significantly favor Republican candidates, and these four districts performed that way in 2024. The 14th District was the closest in that election, with Moore winning by about 16%, while the Sixth District was the least competitive, with McDowell winning by more than 38%.

One of the candidates vying to replace Hudson as NRCC chair is U.S. Rep. Brian Jack, a Georgia Republican.

He wrote in a letter to fellow House Republicans that fellow GOP lawmakers may have contributed to the challenging environment. Former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, won the race for North Carolina's open U.S. Senate seat by nearly 20%.

"When Senate Republicans withdrew support from North Carolina weeks ago, they created a cascade that likely swept away many of our colleagues from that state," Jack wrote.

The AP also called northeastern North Carolina's First Congressional district for incumbent Democrat Rep. Don Davis on Thursday.

That's a district legislative Republicans redrew last year in an effort to make it easier for GOP candidates to win there, pulling Republican-leaning counties from the state's Third Congressional District to do so.

Yet as of Thursday, Davis was leading Republican challenger Laurie Buckhout by more than 10,000 votes. That's a larger margin than he won by in 2024.

North Carolina's Third Congressional District is one of five in the state that remain uncalled, with incumbent Republican Greg Murphy leading Democrat Raymond Smith by just 233 votes in a district where Democrats didn't even run a candidate in 2024. That race is likely headed for a recount.

In the Fifth Congressional District, Democratic challenger Chuck Hubbard is leading 11-term Republican incumbent Virginia Foxx by 99 votes – that's another race that may go to a recount.