5 big takeaways from Tuesday’s primary elections in North Carolina | Opinion

Super Tuesday in North Carolina was a night that brought more than a few surprises. While primaries for president and governor were uneventful, there were plenty of high-profile and competitive races further down the ballot. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from Tuesday’s results.

Bad night for establishment Republicans

It wasn’t a great night for establishment Republicans, especially in key races down the ballot. While primaries do tend to favor more extreme candidates, there were still a number of races in which such an outcome was surprising.

The biggest: Incumbent Catherine Truitt lost to far-right challenger Michele Morrow in the GOP primary for state superintendent of public instruction. Morrow has called public schools “indoctrination centers” and urged people not to send their kids to them, according to WRAL News. Morrow also attended the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and supports policies such as arming teachers. Truitt was the only incumbent Council of State member to lose to a primary challenger.

In the labor commissioner primary, attorney Luke Farley beat six-term state representative Jon Hardister. Farley describes himself as a “America First candidate” and his slogan is “Make Elevators Great Again” (MEGA).

N.C. Rep. John Bradford, a longtime moderate who tried to slide to the right in campaign ads, came in third place in his congressional race.

The Tricia Cotham effect

Longtime public servant Pat Cotham lost reelection to the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners by a sizable margin — about 14,000 votes, according to unofficial results. It was quite the fall, especially after she was the top vote-getter in the 2022 primary by almost an equally large margin. While Cotham has long been a moderate and has had a target on her back for some time — a 2022 op-ed accused her of being a Republican — what likely sealed her fate was her daughter Tricia switching her party affiliation just months after being elected to the state legislature as a Democrat. Tricia Cotham’s party switch gave the GOP the votes it needed to enact a 12-week abortion ban in North Carolina.

If this is a measuring stick for Mecklenburg voters’ anger toward Tricia Cotham, then she’ll have to battle for reelection in November. Of course, new legislative maps put her in a GOP-leaning district, which provides her with a decent buffer. But it’s a race that both parties will certainly fight hard to win.

Runoffs galore?

Sometimes having too many choices might actually be a bad thing. Four crowded Republican primaries could be headed to a runoff in May. No candidate reached 30% of the vote in the 6th and 13th congressional district races, so the top two candidates may spend the next two months campaigning for the seat all over again, assuming a runoff is requested in both races.

There were also no outright winners in the lieutenant governor and state auditor primaries, which means the second-place finishers may request a runoff. In the lieutenant governor race, which had 11 candidates, no Republican even cracked 20% of the vote, unofficial results show.

Money isn’t everything

The most competitive congressional primaries featured candidates who heavily financed their own campaigns — and still managed to lose their elections.

In the 8th Congressional District, Bradford put more than $1.2 million of his own money into his campaign, only to finish a distant 17.78%. The ultimate winner, Mark Harris, spent significantly less by comparison.

In the 13th District, businessman Fred Von Canon loaned his campaign more than $2.5 million, but also finished third with around 17% of the vote. While the top two candidates in that race may be headed to a runoff, it’s worth noting that the top finisher also poured quite a bit of money into her own campaign.

Of course, since that money comes from their own pockets and not from voters or supporters, it’s not necessarily a test of electoral strength. But in a race with such a deep field of candidates, having cash to spend on TV ads and mailers can sometimes get you the name recognition needed to come out on top. This time, though, Republican voters weren’t buying what they were selling.

The most extreme GOP ticket in recent memory

After Tuesday’s results, the three Republicans at the top of North Carolina’s ticket come November will officially be Donald Trump, Mark Robinson and Dan Bishop. It’s undoubtedly the most extreme ticket in recent memory, perhaps in the state’s history — and the results of the general election will say a lot about North Carolina and where it’s headed politically.

At least one of those contests is already receiving national attention. Robinson in particular is likely to be the national symbol for Republican extremists not named Donald Trump — an article from POLITICO Tuesday had the headline “The most important governor’s race of 2024 is about to have its own version of Trump.” Both Robinson and Bishop are proud MAGA Republicans, and the three may very well hit the campaign trail together at some point between now and November.