North Carolina flipped three blue seats red, playing a critical role in Republicans maintaining majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Five newcomers and five returnees provide a myriad of possibilities for committee fits in the 119th Congress being sworn in come January.
From a special masters’ court-ordered map in the 2022 midterms yielding a 7-7 split to the Legislature back in its statute-mandated role to do the drawing, the state is sending 10 Republicans and four Democrats. Consensus prognostications were for one race, the 1st Congressional District, to be competitive; Democrats narrowly won that one and the other 13 went as expected.
Republicans Addison McDowell, Rev. Mark Harris, Pat Harrigan, Brad Knott and state House Speaker Tim Moore will all be newcomers to Congress from North Carolina. Five other Republican incumbents will be returning with them, along with four incumbent Democrats.
Dr. Tom Eamon, professor at East Carolina University, said he expects all the representatives will largely stick to party lines, especially Republicans with their small majority.
“I think this is going to be a case where the Republican leadership and the president are going to try to insist on something close to 100% obedience,” Eamon said. “Whether or not that might begin to break as time goes on partly depends on his popularity.”
That said, he added that each might have issues that are particularly important to their district, and they could take a stand on those.
“Often, there will be something that is a particular area … especially if they thought it would be a threat to them, they would then perhaps deviate. There’s going to be strong pressure not to do that,” Eamon said. “I don’t know what specifically those areas will be right now, but invariably, there are a few.”
The American Majority is a conservative interest group, focused on keeping red states from going blue. North Carolina is unquestionably purple – historically voting for Republican presidents, Democratic governors, and this year splitting the Council of State 5-5 from the GOP’s modest 6-4 edge won in 2020.
Dallas Woodhouse, the North Carolina director for the American Majority Action, told The Center Square that he is excited about the “good, fresh, new blood” joining the North Carolina delegation.
“I think they will obviously support President Trump’s agenda, but every one of them, each in their own way, will be independent,” Woodhouse said. “I think it is an exciting time … they are very diverse as far as viewpoints and experience go.”
In the coming weeks and months, committee appointments will be the focus for the congressional newcomers. It is likely their past work and life experiences will influence those decisions, something that Woodhouse and Eamon both highlighted.
In the 6th Congressional District, McDowell handily beat Constitution Party’s Kevin Hayes 69.2%-30.8%.
McDowell was running as a Trump-endorsed candidate, prioritizing the border, economy, and protecting the Second Amendment. Woodhouse predicts that he will also bring his expertise in health care to any potential committee appointments.
“He’s been a health care executive, so he brings a lot of knowledge about how to reform the health care system,” Woodhouse said.
Harris, in District 8, ran as the “pro-life and pro-family” candidate. He defeated Democrat Justin Dues 59.6%-40.4%. Harris was an Election Day winner in 2018 in what became a notorious ballot harvesting scandal, with his win never certified. He chose not to run in the redo of 2019.
“What Mark Harris knows how to do is pick himself up and keep fighting,” Woodhouse said. “He’s also been a minister and knows how to run nonprofits.
“He’ll fall more socially conservative, but also be very attuned to small business interests.”
North Carolina voters, with 12 military installations notably led by Fort Liberty, especially care about military and veteran policy.
“It’s an area that depends a lot on the military,” Eamon said. “Especially eastern North Carolina.”
Formerly known as Fort Bragg, the Army’s 82nd Airborne, Special Forces and Green Berets are among 52,000 calling the world’s largest military base home. The local saying goes that when the president makes a 911 call, Fort Liberty is on the other end answering.
Eamon added that while most of the North Carolina delegation will likely be for more military appropriations to the state, there might be some disagreement on the details surrounding any potential policies.
Harrigan is Trump-endorsed and a Green Beret himself, making national security and the military key parts of his campaign for District 10. There, he beat out three other candidates on Election Night, winning with 57.7% of the vote.
“He was well organized and really brought a military efficiency to his campaign,” Woodhouse said. “I think he will be heavily focused on military and veterans affairs.”
In District 13, Knott survived a 14-candidate primary. He eventually won against Democrat Frank Pierce 58.7%-41.3%.
“He will be looking a lot at immigration and law enforcement, because he is a former U.S. attorney,” Woodhouse said. “His district is in the Raleigh area, but it’s in the Raleigh suburbs, so it is conservative leaning. People in that area are also worried about education and crime, so he fits that district really well.”
As for Moore, he might be as well-known as any of them.
For the past decade, Moore has led the Republican majority in the North Carolina House of Representatives as speaker of the House. He won the 14th Congressional District.
“Moore is sort of an expert on everything,” Woodhouse said. “There’s nothing more difficult in North Carolina politics than managing the state House.”
Moore ran a campaign bent on fixing “a broken Congress,” handily winning his election against Democrat Pat Genant 58%-41.9%.
“He has a lot of tremendous knowledge on individual issues,” Woodhouse said. “I think his leadership and knowing how to manage and bring people together in a large legislative operation is probably worth more than its weight in gold.”
