NC House Pushes Primary Back to June 7; Senate Approves New Map

“The state House voted not to pro­ceed with the con­gres­sion­al primary March 15 and in­stead hold it June 7. … [I]n a ma­jor change, the House pro­pos­al also said no run­off elec­tions would be held in March or June. Cur­rently, if no can­did­ate gets 40 per­cent of the vote, a second primary is held. … In an­oth­er twist, can­did­ates who won a March 15 primary then could file to run for a con­gres­sion­al seat June 7. If they won in both primar­ies, they would have to with­draw from one, with­in a week after the June 7 res­ults were cer­ti­fied. … The House voted 71-32, mostly along party lines, to make the changes. The Sen­ate is ex­pec­ted to ap­prove them Fri­day.”

Earli­er Thursday, the state Sen­ate ap­proved a re­drawn con­gres­sion­al map. The House is ex­pec­ted vote on it Fri­day. (Raleigh News & Ob­serv­er)

Mean­while, the “Su­preme Court re­mained si­lent Fri­day as a dead­line ap­proached for a lower court or­der re­quir­ing North Car­o­lina to re­draw the bound­ar­ies of two Con­gres­sion­al dis­tricts for this year’s elec­tions, in­clud­ing the primary planned for March 15.” (Politico)

DOWN-BAL­LOT EF­FECTS. If the new map is ad­op­ted, some Re­pub­lic­ans spec­u­late that Rep. George Hold­ing (R-13) would run in Rep. Ren­ee Ellmers’s (R-02) dis­trict, set­ting up an in­cum­bent vs. in­cum­bent primary. Ellmers plans to run in the 2nd Dis­trict re­gard­less, her ad­viser said.

The new lines also draw out most of Ellmers’s primary chal­lengers, in­clud­ing former Chath­am County GOP Chair Jim Duncan (R). Duncan’s spokes­man said he’s still plan­ning to run against Ellmers un­til a de­cision is made.

“Mean­while, the new 13th Dis­trict, one GOP op­er­at­ive in the state said, may look ap­peal­ing to state Sen. An­drew Brock (R), whose le­gis­lat­ive dis­trict over­laps with the pro­posed new lines.” (Roll Call)