Democrat Don Davis holds off Republican to keep North Carolina House seat

Rep. Don Davis (D) staved off a stiff challenge in North Carolina on Tuesday, securing a second term in a newly configured district that had been a top target of House Republicans, Decision Desk HQ projects.

Davis, an Air Force veteran and former state senator, defeated Laurie Buckhout, an Army veteran and consultant, in a northeastern corner of the Tar Heel State that features a heavy Black population.

The seat has been represented by a Democrat for more than a century, but it became more competitive following a controversial redistricting that heavily favored Republicans, who drew the new lines.

The contest was largely focused on immigration, which has been a vulnerability for Democrats this cycle in light of the surge of migrants at the southern border. Buckhout sought to highlight the issue, and to tie Davis to President Biden’s controversial handling of the crisis.

Davis, however, had put himself in a good position to deflect those attacks. In July, he was one of just six House Democrats to vote for a GOP resolution condemning the administration’s border policies.

The Democratic support for the resolution stirred plenty of controversy — not least because the text of the bill labeled Harris the “border czar” — but it helped to distance Davis from the White House on an issue that has been a thorn in the side of Democrats around the country.

His victory is a rare bright spot for Democrats in North Carolina, where Republican lawmakers at the state level had drawn a new congressional map, approved last year, which heavily gerrymandered the districts in the GOP’s favor. The new lines made it virtually impossible for three incumbent Democrats — Reps. Kathy Manning, Wiley Nickel and Jeff Jackson — to win reelection, leading all three to retire at the end of the current term.

The new lines also shifted the 1st District in ways that made the seat more competitive than it was two years ago, when Davis was first elected to Congress. And with the stakes high, outside groups flooded the district with funding, making it among the most expensive races in the country.

Heading into the contest, the outside spending alone topped $27 million, according to OpenSecrets, with the majority — $15.5 million — benefiting Davis.