Laurie Buckhout wins GOP Congressional primary to set up rematch against U.S. Rep. Don Davis

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Laurie Buckhout won the Republican primary in the 1st Congressional District, setting up a rematch of her 2024 race against incumbent Democratic Congressman Don Davis.

The race in the state’s northeastern corner will be one of the only competitive districts in November, but Buckhout will have a better shot this year after the state legislature redrew the district to make it more conservative. She won the primary over four other candidates, thanks in part to heavy spending by her campaign and outside groups, and received enough votes to avoid a runoff.

“Republicans are united and ready to send a fighter to Washington,” Buckhout said in a news release after the race was called. “I spent my career as a U.S. Army colonel leading troops in combat and defending this country. Now I’m ready to take that same mission-first leadership to Washington — to stand up to weak politicians like Don Davis and fight for safer communities, a stronger economy, and the people of Eastern North Carolina.”

If the redistricting leads to a Buckhout win, North Carolina’s Congressional delegation could shift from 10 Republicans and four Democrats to 11 Republicans and three Democrats.

The redistricting moved the 1st District from one that supported Trump with about 51% of the vote in 2024 to one that the Republican candidate would have won with more than 55% of voters.

In 2024, Davis defeated Laurie Buckhout with 49.5% of the vote. Buckhout received 47.8%, and the remaining 2.6% went to Libertarian candidate Tom Bailey. Some observers think Bailey may have played a spoiler role for Buckhout, and he’ll be on the ballot again this November.

Buckhout defeated four other Republican candidates in the primary. They are:

• Asa Buck, who has served as sheriff of Carteret County since 2006. He is a Carteret native who has spent his entire career in law enforcement. He came in a close second place in the primary.
• N.C. Sen. Bobby Hanig, a Currituck County resident and former county commissioner who has served in the legislature since 2019. He’s best known in the Senate for occasionally breaking with his fellow Republicans on coastal issues, including proposed tolls for ferries and a proposed ban on inshore shrimp trawling. Hanig will wrap up his Senate tenure later this year.
• Lenoir County Commissioner Eric Rouse, who entered the Congressional race before the district was redrawn by the state legislature last fall. He remained in the race even after his home in Lenoir County was moved into the 3rd Congressional District, which is represented by GOP Congressman Greg Murphy.
• Ashley Nicole Russell, a family law attorney from Carteret County who has said she was inspired to make her first run for office after the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.

All five candidates highlighted their fervent support for President Donald Trump, but Trump did not make any endorsements in the race — despite doing so in other contested North Carolina congressional primaries in the past.

Each candidate pledged to support Trump’s agenda if elected to Congress, and none of them voiced any significant disagreements on policy issues with their opponents during the campaign. Some candidates even copied some of the graphic design elements from Trump’s past campaign signs.

All five candidates spent significant sums of their own money on their campaigns. Buckhout spent the most, loaning her campaign about $2 million as she entered the race.

Russell loaned her campaign $152,000; Hanig chipped in $150,000 for his; and Buck loaned his campaign $59,000. Rouse initially loaned his campaign $500,000 but didn’t spend it all and already started paying himself back in January, records show.

While Buckhout had the best-funded campaign, Buck led the field in fundraising from individual donors, attracting about $255,000 by the beginning of February.

Donors gave Hanig about $244,000 during the same period; $59,000 to Russell and $50,000 to Rouse.

A number of PACs outside North Carolina ran ads in the primary, nearly all of which were in support of Buckhout’s candidacy.

The “Thank You For Your Attention To This Matter PAC” — an apparent reference to a frequent Trump line in social media posts — spent at least $90,000 to support Buckhout. It is primarily funded by Roger Penske, the leader of the eponymous trucking and auto racing company.

Another top spender (also at least $90,000) was the “Eastern Carolina Conservatives Fund.” It hasn’t filed disclosure reports yet on its donors, but some of its filings list Royce Everette, the owner of a Greenville-based consumer lending company.

A third group, “1st Conservative Fund,” lists a Massachusetts address on filings but hasn’t disclosed donors yet.

The general election contest is expected to be expensive, as the district spans multiple TV markets. The new lines run from part of Granville County in the west to Dare County in the east, down to Craven and Carteret counties. It encompasses 23 entire counties and parts of two more.