North Carolina 2022 Election Results

North Carolina held its general election on November 8, 2022, deciding 170 legislative seats. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Republicans won a three-fifths, veto-proof majority in the Senate but fell one seat short in the House, which could keep Gov. Roy Cooper's vetoes from being overridden.
• In the Senate, former state Sen. Buck Newton (R) picked up an eastern seat, unseating Sen. Toby Fitch (D) in Senate District 4 by about 15 points. In a battleground seat, Sen. Michael Lee (R) held Senate District 7 by about 1,700 votes over Marcia Morgan (D).
• House Democrats lost incumbents across the east and in several close seats, but won enough elsewhere to keep the GOP short of three-fifths.
  • In the east, where five Black incumbent legislators lost, Rep. Howard Hunter III (D) fell to Bill Ward (R) in House District 5, Rep. Linda Cooper-Suggs (D) to Ken Fontenot (R) in House District 24, and Rep. James Gailliard (D) to Allen Chesser (R) in House District 25. Gailliard said that when the maps were redrawn, Black legislators felt the new lines "were going to put all of us at risk."
  • Three more Democratic incumbents lost close races: Rep. Terry Garrison (D) to Frank Sossamon (R) by about 730 votes in House District 32, Rep. Brian Farkas (D) to Tim Reeder (R) by about 350 in House District 9, and Rep. Ricky Hurtado (D) to Stephen Ross (R) by fewer than 600 in House District 63.
  • Democrats answered by unseating one Republican and winning open seats: Ray Jeffers (D) beat Rep. Larry Yarborough (R) in House District 2; Diamond Staton-Williams (D) edged Brian Echevarria (R) in House District 73; and Tricia Cotham (D) won House District 112 by about 18 points.
  The House margin did not hold. In April 2023, Cotham switched to the Republican Party, giving the GOP the 72 seats it needed for a veto-proof House.
• Republicans flipped the state Supreme Court to a 5-2 majority, winning both seats on the ballot and unseating a Democratic justice. The outgoing 4-3 Democratic majority had struck down the legislature's maps as partisan gerrymanders.
• In all, 12 of the 170 legislative seats on the ballot changed party hands, eight to Republicans and four to Democrats, and 8 incumbents lost, all Democrats except Yarborough. Besides Lee's Senate seat, the only other race outside the flips to finish inside two points was House District 98, where Rep. John Bradford (R) won by about 660 votes over Christy Clark (D).

Legislature

• House (120 seats): 51 D, 69 R before the election, 49 D, 71 R after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (50 seats): 22 D, 28 R before the election, 20 D, 30 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Legislative races