US 6th District appears headed to runoff US 6th District appears headed to runoff; Harrigan wins 10th District

The winner-take-all Republican primary for the U.S. House 6th District is headed to a runoff with voters choosing between Addison McDowell, the endorsed candidate of former President Donald Trump, and former three-term U.S. Rep. Mark Walker.

Election Day results are complete and unofficial for the 10th, and incomplete and unofficial for the 6th.

With 95% of the 195 precincts in for the 6th District, McDowell was holding onto his early lead with 26.2% of the vote, followed by Walker with 24.1%.

Christian Castelli, the 2022 GOP nominee for the district, was third at 21.1%, while Bo Hines was a distant fourth at 14.5%, High Point mayor Jay Wagner was fifth with 8.9% and Dr. Mary Ann Contogiannis of Greensboro was sixth at 5.2%.

Meanwhile, in the 10th District, Pat Harrigan and N.C. Rep. Grey Mills surged ahead early from the three hard-right candidates with Harrigan winning by a 41.2% to 38.9% margin with all 187 precincts reporting.

Mills is a four-term N.C. House member representing Iredell County.

The winner will face Democrat Robert Scott of Statesville and Libertarian Steve Feldman.

According to the N.C. State Board of Elections, the top candidate who receives more than 30% of the vote in a primary wins their party's nomination.

If no candidate receives more than 30% of the vote, the candidate who receives the second-highest vote total may call for a second primary that would be held May 14. Only the top two vote-getters would be on the ballot for a second primary.

6th District

The 6th District primary is likely to be among the most intriguing U.S. House races nationally with political analysts saying it would serve as a defining Super Tuesday measuring stick of an endorsement from Trump.

The passage of the controversial GOP-drawn congressional map for North Carolina led Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning to decide not to run for a second term in the 6th. With no other Democrat filing, the winner of the GOP primary will be the next 6th representative.

The new 6th has a 57% to 43% Republican advantage, according to an analysis by Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College with an expertise on congressional races.

It is the most Triad-centric of the four U.S. House districts representing the region.

The district includes Kernersville, Walkertown and the southern Forsyth border with Davidson and Davie counties through the 2030 general election barring a successful legal challenge.

The 6th portion of Guilford forms a loop shaped like a backward C around the county's suburban communities and High Point. Also included is all of Davidson, Davie and Rowan and about 20% of Cabarrus County.

In December, Trump surprisingly endorsed a relative newcomer in McDowell - who has ties to U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C. - over three previous congressional candidates, including Castelli who was the district's Republican candidate in 2022.

Hines, who Trump endorsed for the 13th District in 2022, and Walker, who served the 6th from 2015 to 2021, prominently featured photos standing with Trump on their campaign websites.

McDowell, a health-insurance industry lobbyist for Blue Cross Blue Shield N.C., was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., who served three terms in the U.S. House before winning his Senate seat in 2022. McDowell worked as a constituent liaison in Budd's congressional office.

Walker declared his candidacy for the 6th shortly after the legislative passage of the new congressional map.

He had struggled for months to gain traction in his aborted campaign for the 2024 Republican governor nomination against front-runner Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, as have state Treasurer Dale Folwell and Bill Graham.

10th District

For Winston-Salem voters, the 10th District's Republican primary may serve as an eye-opening reality check of how they are being affected by the latest Republican-drawn congressional map.

None of the five GOP candidates have a residence in the Triad.

The map is likely to be in place through the 2030 elections barring a court reversal. Winston-Salem and western Forsyth County are in the new 10th, along with solidly Republican counties Catawba, Iredell, Lincoln and Yadkin.

Mills and Harrigan have emerged as potential front-runners, in large part because of endorsements they have received.

Harrigan, who owns a gun manufacturing business, is endorsed by Mark Robinson, the state's controversial lieutenant governor who easily won the Republican nomination for governor. He also received the endorsement of N.C. Rep. Julia Howard, R-Davie.

Mills has been endorsed by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, state House speaker Tim Moore and fellow Republican state legislators whose districts overlap the 10th, including Reps. Kyle Hall and Jeff Zenger in Forsyth County and Sen. Vickie Sawyer in Iredell County.

Brooke McGowan of Troutman was third with 10% of the vote, followed by Charles Eller of Davidson at 6.9% and Diana Jimison of Hickory at 2.9%.

All three were unabashed Trump devotees, with Eller and Jimison stating they would not have certified the 2020 presidential election.

McGowan's most prominent endorser is former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who served for 23 days as national security adviser at the start of the Trump administration before resigning over whether he lied about conversations with Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. Flynn is a prominent member of the Christian Nationalism movement.

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