On Thursday, Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel announced he won't seek reelection in 2024, a development that comes after North Carolina Republicans recently enacted a new gerrymander that shredded his competitive 13th District and replaced it with one that is solidly Republican.
Nickel highlighted the GOP's new map as the reason for his decision, saying, "Republicans have rigged the system to favor themselves and I don’t have a path to run for re-election in the 13th district." However, Nickel indicated he plans to run for Senate in 2026, arguing that GOP legislators "can’t gerrymander a statewide election." If Nickel ran and won the Democratic nomination, he would likely face off against Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, whose seat is up then, though Tillis has not yet announced whether he will run for a third term.
Last year, while he was still a state senator, Nickel pulled off a 52-48 upset win against far-right Republican Bo Hines in a congressional district that would have supported Joe Biden 50-48. The old 13th included part of Raleigh and much of its nearby suburbs, but the GOP's new map replaced most of this blue-leaning turf with distant rural areas that are much more Republican. Consequently, the new 13th would have supported Donald Trump 58-41 according to new calculations from Daily Kos Elections.
In the 2022 midterms, North Carolina used a court-drawn congressional map, which elected seven Republicans and seven Democrats, but the GOP's new gerrymander targeted four of the latter for defeat, and three of them aren't running again as a result. In addition to Nickel, 6th District Rep. Kathy Manning is retiring, while 14th District Rep. Jeff Jackson is running for state attorney general. Just Rep. Don Davis, the only one of the four who didn't see his Biden-supporting district turned into a solidly Trump-favoring seat, is seeking reelection, but his new 1st District would have backed Biden just 50-49.
Consequently, all the action to replace Nickel in the new 13th will be in the GOP primary, which could soon get even more crowded. On Thursday, wealthy attorney Kelly Daughtry filed to run, though she doesn't appear to have formally announced her candidacy yet. Last year, Daughtry self-funded nearly $3 million for her primary campaign in the old 13th, but she took third place, with 17%, while Hines won a 32-23 plurality over activist DeVan Barbour, which was just over the 30% needed to avoid a runoff between the top two finishers.
Next year's primary field also includes businessman Fred Von Canon, Army veteran Josh McConkey, and former federal prosecutor Brad Knott, the last of whom we haven’t previously mentioned. However, WUNC reported that the "little-known" Knott has benefitted from at least $500,000 in ad spending by a super PAC called the American Foundations Committee, whose leaders have extensive ties to state Republicans.
While Hines himself is running for Congress again next year, he's doing so in the redrawn 6th District, which exists in the central Piedmont region this time. We'll know very soon who all the contenders are for the 13th and other districts since the filing deadline is on Friday.
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Nickel highlighted the GOP's new map as the reason for his decision, saying, "Republicans have rigged the system to favor themselves and I don’t have a path to run for re-election in the 13th district." However, Nickel indicated he plans to run for Senate in 2026, arguing that GOP legislators "can’t gerrymander a statewide election." If Nickel ran and won the Democratic nomination, he would likely face off against Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, whose seat is up then, though Tillis has not yet announced whether he will run for a third term.
Last year, while he was still a state senator, Nickel pulled off a 52-48 upset win against far-right Republican Bo Hines in a congressional district that would have supported Joe Biden 50-48. The old 13th included part of Raleigh and much of its nearby suburbs, but the GOP's new map replaced most of this blue-leaning turf with distant rural areas that are much more Republican. Consequently, the new 13th would have supported Donald Trump 58-41 according to new calculations from Daily Kos Elections.
In the 2022 midterms, North Carolina used a court-drawn congressional map, which elected seven Republicans and seven Democrats, but the GOP's new gerrymander targeted four of the latter for defeat, and three of them aren't running again as a result. In addition to Nickel, 6th District Rep. Kathy Manning is retiring, while 14th District Rep. Jeff Jackson is running for state attorney general. Just Rep. Don Davis, the only one of the four who didn't see his Biden-supporting district turned into a solidly Trump-favoring seat, is seeking reelection, but his new 1st District would have backed Biden just 50-49.
Consequently, all the action to replace Nickel in the new 13th will be in the GOP primary, which could soon get even more crowded. On Thursday, wealthy attorney Kelly Daughtry filed to run, though she doesn't appear to have formally announced her candidacy yet. Last year, Daughtry self-funded nearly $3 million for her primary campaign in the old 13th, but she took third place, with 17%, while Hines won a 32-23 plurality over activist DeVan Barbour, which was just over the 30% needed to avoid a runoff between the top two finishers.
Next year's primary field also includes businessman Fred Von Canon, Army veteran Josh McConkey, and former federal prosecutor Brad Knott, the last of whom we haven’t previously mentioned. However, WUNC reported that the "little-known" Knott has benefitted from at least $500,000 in ad spending by a super PAC called the American Foundations Committee, whose leaders have extensive ties to state Republicans.
While Hines himself is running for Congress again next year, he's doing so in the redrawn 6th District, which exists in the central Piedmont region this time. We'll know very soon who all the contenders are for the 13th and other districts since the filing deadline is on Friday.
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