Last week, North Carolina held their state primary election on Super Tuesday. In addition to the presidential primary vote, their ballots also had a primary election for seats in the House of Representatives. A former representative, who represented the district that spanned from Greensboro and Winston-Salem to Concord, was on the ballot for another election for the same seat he previously held, but actually came in second. This representative, former U.S. Representative Mark Walker, served in the House until 2020. 2020 marked his sixth year in the seat.
The way the votes worked out, the Republican nominee for the seat was going to have to result in a run-off.
The Republican ballot had six candidates running for the nomination. With this, the top candidate, or the person who received the most votes, was Addison McDowell. However, she did not get enough votes to warrant being the nominee, instead there would have to be a runoff election in mid-May. Addison had to receive at least more than 30% of the votes in order to be nominated, but she failed to do so as the votes were ultimately widely spread amongst the six candidates. This runoff election would essentially be a second election, however former Rep. Mark Walker would have to formally request one in writing, something many expected to happen.
Instead, Walker announced this week that he will be forgoing the runoff and instead join Donald Trump as a part of his presidential campaign.
This fact is particularly interesting as the former President himself endorsed Addison McDowell. Nonetheless, Walker said in a statement released on Wednesday that he simply did not want to request the runoff election, therefore handing McDowell the party nomination and practically handing him the House seat as well.
The current Representative for this district is Rep. Kathy Manning, who is a democrat. She did not run for re-election and neither did any other democrat, therefore McDowell is largely assured to take over the spot. Manning stated that due to redistricting and already being a Republican majority seat, she felt that she had to lean righter than she wanted.
According to a social media post from Donald Trump, the former president spoke to Walker and had personally asked him to join his campaign to work with “Faith Groups and Minority Communities,” due to his background as a former Baptist pastor.