Next November, millions of eyes across the country will be on North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race: will retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis’s seat flip to blue, or will Republicans retain it with someone further to the right than Tillis?

The March primaries for that race are crowded. On the Democratic side, former Gov. Roy Cooper is running against five lesser-known candidates, and on the Republican side, Trump-endorsed candidate Michael Whatley faces a surprise primary challenge from Michele Morrow plus challenges from five other hopefuls. 

Meanwhile, the Triangle’s two congressional seats—NC-02 and NC-04—sit at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to primary action. NC-02 has one Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian candidate each, so the race will skip straight to the general election, when incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross will take on her challengers. NC-04, a solidly blue district, will most likely be decided by the Democratic primary, where incumbent U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee faces off against Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam in a revival of their 2022 race.

Here’s a look at the candidates.

4th Congressional District

Democratic Primary

Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee is seeking a third term representing North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, which encompasses Durham and Orange counties as well as small parts of Wake and Chatham counties. Before her election to Congress, she spent over two decades in elected office, serving on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board, the Orange County Board of Commissioners, and in both the state house and state senate. 

In Congress, none of Foushee’s sponsored bills have been enacted into law—including legislation on gun violence prevention and clean energy technology—though in 2024 she secured over $12 million in community project funding for NC-04 in appropriations bills that were signed into law. She sits on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology; and was recently appointed Co-Chair of the House Democratic Commission on AI and the Innovation Economy. Her platform includes expanding access to healthcare through Medicare for All, criminal justice reform including marijuana decriminalization, climate action through the Green New Deal, codifying Roe v. Wade, raising the federal minimum wage, and expanding the Child Tax Credit.

Foushee faced criticism for accepting massive contributions from pro-Israel groups like AIPAC during her 2022 campaign; for traveling to Israel on an AIPAC-funded trip to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024; and for voicing support for Israel even as Israel bombarded Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. As the conflict raged on and constituents pressured her, Foushee signed letters calling for a Gaza ceasefire and accusing Israel of failing to meet humanitarian conditions under U.S. arms sales law; voted against a resolution declaring “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” to be antisemitic hate speech; and cosponsored the Block the Bombs Act. In August 2025, she told the INDY she would not accept contributions from AIPAC for her 2026 campaign. 

Foushee has received endorsements from a bevy of politicians including Gov. Josh Stein, former Gov. Roy Cooper, and U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross for the upcoming election.

Foushee faces a rematch against Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam who placed second in the 2022 Democratic primary with 37% of the vote to Foushee’s 46%. Allam has served on the Durham County Board of Commissioners since 2020, serving as chair from 2023 to 2025. As a county commissioner, Allam has helped create the position of Immigrant and Refugee Services Coordinator, raised the minimum wage for all county employees to $19/ hour, and worked on affordable housing initiatives. In November, she joined hundreds of volunteers monitoring Border Patrol agents in Durham, personally filming the detention of several people behind a shopping center. 

She has received endorsements from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, gun control activist David Hogg, and the youth-led Sunrise Movement, among other figures and groups. Her platform includes making public colleges tuition-free, fully funding Section 8 housing vouchers, ending Citizens United and banning congressional stock trading, and an arms embargo on Israel. Like Foushee, she supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, codifying Roe, and raising the federal minimum wage.

A longtime advocate for Palestinian rights, Allam has criticized Foushee’s record on Israel and believes the AIPAC money Foushee received ahead of the 2022 primary is the reason she  didn’t win.

Mary Patterson, a Durham resident, has also filed to run in the Democratic primary but has not launched a campaign website or made public statements about her candidacy.

Other candidates

Mahesh “Max” Ganorkar, a Pittsboro resident, is the Republican candidate in the NC-04 race. Ganorkar ran unsuccessfully in the 2024 Republican primary for the NC-04 seat. His platform includes expanding constitutional carry, reducing domestic violence, imposing term limits on congress members, and being an “anti-socialism warrior.” 

Guy Meilleur, a Durham-based consulting arborist, is the Libertarian candidate for the NC-04 seat. Meilleur ran unsuccessfully for the NC-04 seat in 2024 and has had three prior unsuccessful campaigns for the North Carolina House of Representatives. His platform includes reducing partisan gridlock in Congress, implementing market-driven healthcare reforms, limiting foreign military interventions, and empowering independent oversight of government spending.

2nd Congressional District (No primary)

Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross is running for a fourth term representing North Carolina’s 2nd District, which includes most of Wake County. Before her election to congress, Ross, a civil rights lawyer, worked as state director for the ACLU of North Carolina and spent over a decade in the North Carolina House of Representatives. She also ran as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 2016, losing to then-incumbent Sen. Richard Burr. 

In Congress, Ross sits on the House Judiciary Committee, the House Ethics Committee, and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Over a dozen pieces of legislation she’s sponsored have been signed into law, including bills to increase funding for sexual assault nurse examiners, enhance judicial transparency, and support offshore wind energy development. Ross has also secured $30 million in federal funding for Wake County community projects.

Ross was criticized for accepting AIPAC contributions during her 2022 and 2024 campaigns. In September 2025, she told the INDY she would not accept AIPAC contributions for her 2026 run.

Eugene Douglass, a Raleigh-based education consultant and retired chemistry professor, is the Republican candidate for the NC-02 seat. Douglass previously ran in the 2024 Republican primary for the NC-02 seat, placing second with 22.5% of the vote. His platform emphasizes stricter abortion restrictions, stricter immigration enforcement, and what he describes as protecting children from gender-affirming care.

Matthew Laszacs, a Cary resident, is the Libertarian candidate for the NC-02 seat. Laszacs does not yet have a campaign website for his congressional run. When he previously ran, unsuccessfully, for the North Carolina state senate in 2024, his priorities included expanding school choice through education savings accounts and transitioning the Medicaid direct payment model to a state-funded health savings account.

U.S. Senate

Democratic Primary

The frontrunner in North Carolina’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper served as North Carolina’s Attorney General for 16 years before being elected governor in 2016 and reelected in 2020. Since leaving the governor’s office in January 2025, Cooper has been teaching health policy and leadership as a fellow at Harvard University. His Senate campaign priorities include supporting the middle class, holding corporations accountable, and protecting healthcare, veterans’ benefits, and Social Security.

Also running in the Democratic primary:

  • Orrick Quick, a High Point pastor whose platform includes protecting the elderly through expanded Medicare and enforced nursing home standards, defending constitutional due process, and expanding aid to the needy through school meals and housing assistance.
  • Marcus Williams, a Wilmington attorney whose campaign website does not appear to have been updated since his previous runs for other statewide seats. Williams ran in North Carolina’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2022, placing fourth. He also previously ran in North Carolina’s Democratic primaries for attorney general in 2016 and governor in 2024. 
  • Daryl Farrow, a Jacksonville resident whose platform is not publicly detailed. Farrow was previously the Democratic nominee in the race for North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District seat in 2020, losing to incumbent U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy.
  • Justin Dues, a Concord tech consultant whose platform includes raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour and adding constitutional amendments to end gerrymandering and overturn Citizens United. Dues was previously the Democratic nominee for North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District in 2024, losing to U.S. Rep. Mark Harris. 
  • Robert Colon, a Wilmington resident whose platform includes reducing government spending and promoting globalization. Colon previously ran in North Carolina’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2022, placing eighth, and also ran in the Democratic primary for North Carolina’s 7th congressional district in 2020, placing third.
  • Alyssia Hammond, a Raleigh social justice activist whose platform is not publicly detailed. Hammond previously ran in North Carolina’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2022, placing third.

Republican Primary

Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley is the frontrunner in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. Whatley previously worked in the George W. Bush administration’s Department of Energy, served as chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, and chaired the North Carolina GOP before leaving that role to chair the RNC from March 2024 to August 2025. He also helmed Trump’s 2016 campaign operation in North Carolina and helped organize the Presidential Transition’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force following Trump’s win that year. His platform is centered on job creation and higher wages, lowering taxes and costs for gas and groceries, and eliminating sanctuary cities and supporting Trump’s deportation policies. His senate candidacy has been endorsed by Trump.

Also running in the Republican primary:

  • Michele Morrow, a former nurse and homeschool advocate based in Cary whose platform is not publicly detailed beyond this statement on her website: “President Trump has taken America back from the brink. Now, it’s time we take back North Carolina.” Morrow gained national prominence during her unsuccessful 2024 bid for North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction for her social media posts calling for the execution of Democratic leaders and her presence at the January 6 insurrection.
  • Don Brown, a Waxhaw attorney whose platform includes cutting two-thirds of nonmilitary federal personnel, eliminating the IRS and federal income tax, and prohibiting federal vaccine and mask mandates. Brown previously ran for North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District in 2024, placing fourth.
  • Elizabeth Temple, a Smithfield teacher whose platform is not publicly detailed. Temple previously ran in the Republican primary for the North Carolina House’s 28th district, placing second. Temple was accused in 2019 of making offensive comments to students at a Wake County elementary school, allegations she denied.
  • Thomas Johnson, a Garner business consultant and Air Force veteran whose platform includes extending religious freedom protections from COVID-era government restrictions, reforming accountability for substandard Veteran Affairs care, and reducing America’s food costs through improved cold-chain storage infrastructure.
  • Margot Dupre, a Charlotte resident whose platform and background were not publicly detailed.
  • Richard Dansie, Durham network security engineer and Army veteran whose platform includes ending welfare, rebuilding masculinity, and purging pornography and gender ideology “from schools and public life.”

Other candidates:

Shannon Bray is the Libertarian candidate for North Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat. An Apex Navy veteran who works in cybersecurity, Bray previously ran as North Carolina’s Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate in 2020 and 2022. He also ran as North Carolina’s Libertarian nominee for lieutenant governor in 2024, and placed second in the state’s Libertarian primary for governor in 2024. His platform includes abolishing the Federal Reserve, legalizing drugs federally while allowing state regulation, and creating cryptocurrency-friendly policies.

Primary Day is March 3 and early voting begins February 12.

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Lena Geller is a reporter for INDY, covering food, housing, and politics. She joined the staff in 2018 and previously ran a custom cake business.