Welcome to INDY’s 2026 Primary Live Blog

Nida Allam issued a statement on social media conceding the race to Rep. Valerie Foushee and her campaign confirmed she is no longer seeking a recount.

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Allam Concedes to Foushee After Tight Primary

Rep. Valerie Foushee led challenger Nida Allam by about 1,200 votes in the 4th Congressional District Democratic primary. On Wednesday night, Allam announced she was conceding the race.

by Chase Pellegrini de Paur March 4, 2026March 4, 2026

When Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam finally took the stage around midnight at an election night party at The Fruit in Durham, her supporters had spent hours eagerly waiting for a result that never came.

Incumbent representative Valerie Foushee had taken an early edge around 8:30 p.m. when results from early voting and mail-in ballots were posted. As Orange, Chatham, and Durham counties reported votes over the next three hours, The New York Times website (projected onto the big screen at The Fruit) showed Foushee’s purple bar still slightly outpacing Allam’s teal.

Around 10 p.m. a representative for the People’s Alliance, the Durham PAC that co-hosted the watch party, took to the stage to declare victory in several downballot races. The DJ went home to walk the dog. Reporters started getting restless.

Finally, by 11:45 p.m., only Wake County still had a few precincts to report. And Allam’s path to victory seemed to have all but closed. When all precincts reported results, Foushee had 61,537 votes to Allam’s 60,335. 

“What a night, y’all,” Allam said from the stage. 

As expected, Foushee won Orange County while Allam won Durham County. Voters in the portion of the district that lies in Chatham County favored Foushee, while voters in Wake county went for Allam.

With the vote difference falling within the 1% margin, Allam said she would be exercising her right to call for a recount. As Allam spoke, Foushee’s team sent out a brief press release from her private watch party in Hillsborough, thanking her constituents for giving her a third term.

With 97 percent of precincts reporting results, there’s a sliver of a margin between Rep. Valerie Foushee and challenger Nida Allam, a Durham County commissioner in the 4th Congressional District Democratic primary. Foushee is currently ahead by about 1,700 votes. The outstanding precincts are primarily in Western Wake County.

At Hi-Wire Brewing in Golden Belt, her neighborhood of nearly 20 years, DeDreana Freeman is sitting with a group of supporters, taking stock of the night.

Freeman, a former Durham City Council member, was challenging first-term incumbent Sophia Chitlik for the District 22 state senate seat. She captured roughly a third of the vote and won’t be advancing past the primary. Freeman says she’s at peace with that.

“I feel good about being here on my own, without the endorsements,” Freeman tells me.

Freeman says she believes there’s a growing groundswell among working-class Durham residents and wants to help build the infrastructure to support candidates who will fight for them. She plans to work with Durham Democrats, and says she’s looking at bringing in outside organizations for anti-racist political training.

“Durham is different,” she says. “We take care of our people. And if you’re gonna represent us, you better be taking care of our people. And it’s not from behind a desk.”

Freeman spent the past two weeks at polling sites and says the response from her neighbors kept her spirits high. But she worries about the direction of local politics more broadly.

“It’s getting further and further away from the people who are actually impacted by the policy,” she says. “And as that happens, we all just become like pawns in a game.”

DJ Gemynii cut into her set to call attendees toward the stage for a results update from People’s Alliance PAC coordinators, Rann Bar-On (the “math cruncher”) and Monica Burnette.

Barr-On enthusiastically rattled off a number of races, including U.S. Senate, state Senate, and Durham school board. But some of the loudest cheers were for District Attorney Satana Deberry and Clerk of Superior Court Aminah Thompson, who won reelection decisively.

Deberry and Thompson stepped on stage to give brief remarks.

Deberry praised her two daughters who were in attendance, noting how much they’ve grown since she took office.

“They were little kids when we started this journey,” Deberry said. “Now they’re grown women.”

She continued.

“I want to thank all the people Durham for really believing in me. It has been the honor of my career to serve as your district attorney. I have never had a job so hard. I’ve never had a job so rewarding for people that I care about so much. So I love you all.”

Next up was Thompson, beaming as she approached the podium.

“I look forward to continuing the work that I’m doing, bringing accessibility, efficiency to our courts,” Thompson said. “The clerk of court, of course, provides record keeping administration, and I’m also a judge really protecting the lives and the legacies of our citizens here in Durham, and so I’m so excited to be able to continue the work and just thank you all for your support. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart.”

Deberry returned to the stage to celebrate Thompson’s success and draw attention to the “two Black women with locs” up on stage. Before stepping off, she gave a shout out to Carl Rist, who was in the crowd, for co-authoring an op-ed for the INDY in support of her.

“I want to thank all of y’all who sent letters to the editor and op-eds to the INDY in response to that really kind of nasty, brutal op-ed about me. Thank you all for really stepping up.”

I arrived at Casa Amigos Cocina in Fuquay-Varina just as state House District 37 candidate Winn Decker’s watch party was breaking up. Decker’s campaign manager, former Wake County school board member Lindsay Mahaffey, gently herded stragglers out of the restaurant, past remnants of dinner and margs strewn over a bunch of tables pushed together in the center of the room.

Decker and Mahaffey were reticent to talk about the results before they’re final, but things are looking good for them: With early votes tallied, Decker is leading his closest opponent, Gadson, with a 13% margin. Turnout is high, which bodes well for whichever Democrat ultimately faces off against Republican Rep. Erin Paré, the incument, in November.

Holly Springs mayor Mike Kondratick and Donna Friend, the county Democratic Party vice chair for southern Wake, were among the last celebrants to leave the party. As he walked to his car, Kondratick quoted fictional West Wing president Jed Bartlet’s iconic, recurring line: “What’s next?”

At the Fruit, the People’s Alliance (PA) PAC is declaring victory in most of the night’s races, including Durham school board. With just over half of precincts reporting, all the school board candidates the PA PAC endorsed are ahead with comfortable margins.

If those results hold, it will mark a major shift in power in the school district because the four PA candidates—Natalie Bent Kitaif in District 1, Nadeen Bir in District 2, Gabby Rivero in District 3, and Xavier Cason in District 4—were also backed by the DPS workers union.

The union, the Durham Association of Educators, has reached majority status and flexed its political muscle in recent years. With four wins tonight, the DAE will have successfully deposed two-term incumbent and board chair Bettina Umstead and helped candidates secure a majority of board seats. 

As results roll in, more local electeds have made their way into The Fruit for the People’s Alliance election watch party in Durham. County Commissioner Wendy Jacobs was spotted talking with friends, and District Attorney Satana Deberry was seen dressed down in a tee and camo slacks, standing near the big board watching election results for the 4th Congressional District primary.

Deberry is awaiting results for her own race, too. When asked about how she feels coming into tonight, she was upbeat, saying that she’s confident that the people who have supported her since day one will continue to bolster her campaign this election.

“We danced with the people we came with,” Deberry said. “So I feel good about where we’re at and where we’re going.”

With about half of precincts reporting, she has a 23-point lead.

The North Carolina Democratic Party is celebrating primary wins at Seaboard Station, a once-dilapidated industrial yard that was claimed by developers as Wake County’s population boomed. Today, it’s home to three shiny (and expensive) new apartment buildings—The Point, The Signal, and The Miles—as well as a parking garage and hotel (Hyatt House). More development is on the way with Turnbridge Equities on track to build two more residential towers on the Seaboard Train Station site (you might remember our coverage of the rezoning fight), once home to Logan’s Garden Shop.

Candidates, volunteers, and campaign staff slowly trickled in around 7:30 pm to pack the TRAINE ballroom, which has an industrial chic vibe with its hardwood floors and exposed ceiling. Everyone seemed ready for Roy Cooper to take the stage: a podium in the corner (literally) has his name on it. Over loud conversation, evergreen pop music blares through the speakers, including Alicia Keyes’ “Girl on Fire” and B.o.B’s “Airplanes.”

Members of the press, including myself, have been roped off in a large corner, which feels a lot smaller when filled with a couple dozen journalists and some 15 TV cameras, towering over everyone like a small grove of tripodal trees.

After Cooper, 90 points ahead of his next competitor, gives a speech accepting the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator, TV reporters begin breaking down their equipment: stashing cameras, folding tripods, and pulling up electrical wires. Meanwhile, on-air reporters are hard at work editing their video footage.

About half the room has emptied out as well, but “Pink Pony Club” just came on, so the party isn’t quite over yet.

I’m at The Players Retreat in Raleigh, where supporters of Wake County commission at-large candidate Christine Kushner have hung up a big campaign banner among the Panthers and Budweiser memorabilia on the wood-paneled walls. There are about 40 people crammed into this little room, and the vibe is bubbly and expectant, even though no results have yet been reported in Wake. County commissioner Vickie Adamson, former Wake County Board of Elections chair Mark Ezzell, and lots of Kushner’s friends are here. She, her husband, and her campaign treasurer are sharing a glass of red wine and eagerly refreshing the N.C. State Board of Elections results dashboard.

Kushner tells me she’s feeling good about her chances tonight. She spent the day at a polling site in Knightdale with mayor Jessica Day (different Jessica Day, New Girl fans) and council member Grady Bussey. She thinks her platform, focused on education and human services, really resonated with voters. As we talk, a friend approaches her with a word of encouragement (“We’re going to win tonight!”) and an offer to don his special fleece-lined vest for good luck. She graciously declines.

It’s a whole vibe at The Fruit tonight, which is hosting what is either a People’s Alliance watch party or a Nida Allam watch party, depending on who you ask.

When I walked in, David Hogg was brooding in a shadowy doorway, like Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, before slipping into some kind of green room. Hogg is the former co-vice chair of the Democratic National Committee who has now made a couple trips to Durham to stump for Allam.

DJ Gemynii is spinning tunes including a Bruno Mars “Uptown Funk” remix followed by “Gallan Goodiyaan” from the Bollywood film Dil Dhadakne Do. They tell me they weren’t quite sure how to prepare for an event like this, but that they’re “going off of vibes.”

“Durham is a cool city, and so I’m just playing cool music,” DJ Gemynii says. 

According to the owner of The Fruit (who apparently interned for the INDY 30 years ago!) there are no election-themed drinks tonight. There is, however, a puppet show rehearsal going on in the basement.

Polls have closed and results are starting to roll in for 2026 primary elections in the Triangle. Here’s the latest on some races we’re watching (results may take a moment to load.)

Durham County

Click here for more live results from elections in Durham County.

Wake County

Click here for more live results from elections in Wake County.

With early and absentee votes from Durham and Orange Counties in, there’s a narrow margin between Rep. Valerie Foushee and challenger Nida Allam, a Durham County commissioner in the 4th Congressional District Democratic primary. Foushee is currently ahead in both counties (precincts in Wake and Chatham counties aren’t yet reporting results) but keep in mind there are still plenty of votes to be counted.

Primary Day in the Triangle has come to close.

Voters cast ballots on everything from local school boards to Congress. While some of the races are set to narrow partisan fields for general elections in the fall, others drew only candidates from one party and therefore will decide the winners.

In Durham, voters made picks for the Durham Public Schools Board of Education, district attorney, sheriff, judges, clerk of court, and one contested state Senate race.

In Orange, residents voted for sheriff, school board, county commission, register of deeds, and one seat in the state House.

And in Wake, elections were held for county commission, Raleigh city council, district attorney and state legislature.

Now, we await the results. Throughout the evening, we’ll bring you dispatches from candidates’ watch parties, and of course, results as they come in. Due to hours being extended at a polling place in Halifax County, election results statewide are expected to be delayed, The Assembly’s Bryan Anderson reported on X.

Catch up on all the latest updates below.

I’m keeping a close eye on the Democratic primary for Senate District 22, where former Durham City Council member DeDreana Freeman is challenging first-term incumbent Sen. Sophia Chitlik in a race that will tell us something about how far community roots can carry a candidate.

Freeman has been a fixture in Durham’s activist and political scenes for nearly two decades. She spent eight years on city council and before that, sat on the planning commission and organized for housing justice in her Golden Belt neighborhood. She’s the kind of elected official who gets stopped in parking lots by constituents who want her ear. 

But Freeman has a slim endorsement list, has not chased big-dollar fundraising, and maintains a limited media presence; she told me last month that she views broadcasting her work as performative. Her supporters see all that as proof that she’s accountable to constituents rather than to institutions. But Freeman’s “word of mouth” approach to campaigning may cost her some reach; several voters told me recently that they admired her council record but had no idea she was running for state Senate.

Where Freeman is letting her track record speak for itself, Chitlik has spent her freshman term documenting her work and getting it in front of people. She recently published a constituent services report detailing everything from her legislative output to the volume of constituent contact she’s personally handled since taking office (over 500 returned phone calls and 1,400 emails). She uses social media fluently as both a governing and campaigning tool, and she’s a formidable fundraiser; she outraised Freeman roughly six-to-one this cycle, drawing from a mix of family money, institutional backers, and Durham donors. And she’s built a hefty endorsement slate, including from the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People’s PAC, Planned Parenthood, and the AFL-CIO.

Chitlik is also no stranger to the community work Freeman has built her reputation on, though she doesn’t have the same history of local organizing behind her. If Freeman wins or makes this race close despite everything working against her, it’ll say something about how much that history still counts for in Durham.

The most-watched race on Triangle ballots today is the 4th Congressional District Democratic Primary between incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee and challenger Nida Allam, a Durham County commissioner.

We at the INDY have been covering the race closely for months—getting to know the candidates, unpacking their campaign strategies, and digging into the mind-boggling sums spent on the race. Here’s a rundown on what you need to know about the NC-04 primary.

Read: A House District Divided

NC-04 is one of the bluest districts in the state and the nation. Chase Pellegrini de Paur profiled both candidates—their backgrounds, their records, their pitches to voters—and looked at how the race fit into a broader split within the Democratic Party. Read if you want to know more about the candidates, why this race matters, and what it all has to do with Zohran Mamdani.

Read: Outside Money Flows into 4th Congressional District Primary, Again

The 2022 matchup between Allam and Foushee was the most expensive congressional primary in state history, fueled by millions in outside spending from Pro-Israel and crypto groups.

Fast forward to 2026 and NC-04 residents may be having déjà vu with ads and mailers paid for by PACs blanketing the district again. Chase reported on the first $1 million spent on the race, the groups behind the spending, and the back-and-forth between the candidates criticizing each other’s financial backing. Read if you want to know more about who paid for that mailer you got the other day, and what the candidates had to say about outside groups spending on their behalf.

Read: The Road to Victory in NC-04 Runs Through Western Wake County

Since the 2022 primary, the boundaries of the 4th Congressional District have been redrawn. Newly added voters in western Wake County, who don’t know the candidates as well as constituents in Durham and Orange, could cast the deciding votes in the race.

Chase and Chloe Courtney Bohl reported on how Allam and Foushee are courting Western Wake’s approximately 130,000 eligible NC-04 voters specifically and what support they’re picking up in this new part of the district. Read more if you live in Western Wake, need fodder for Election Day arguments about which way this race might go, or want to know where the candidates stand on data centers.

Read: Tracking Outside Spending in the 4th Congressional District Primary

Outside spending in the NC-04 race did not stop with our first story. So Chase decided to keep a running tab of what PACs are pouring money into the race, how much they’re spending, and who they are supporting.

Ahead of Election Day, Chase identified $4 million in outside spending—and counting. Read if digging through campaign finance reports sounds like your idea of a good time.

And check back for live results below after the polls close.

Durham early voting numbers continue their upward trend from previous election cycles.

This year, 33,162 Durham voters cast ballots during the early voting period that began on February 12. That’s 13.5% of eligible voters, up from 11.3% in 2022, and 12.3% in 2024. The majority of that increase in turnout—31,237 of 33,162—comes from ballots cast for Democratic candidates.

Younger voters saw a slight uptick in early voting representation thus far. The 18-25 and 26-40 age groups both increased their share of early voters, but the 65+ age group still holds the largest voting block with 39.87% (13,221 ballots).

Voter breakdown by race remained consistent, with White voters (52.3%) and Black voters (35.6%) making up the majority of ballots cast. But two nebulous groups, Undesignated and Other, as well as Asian, grew their share of voter turnout. Durham County, like neighboring Wake, is experiencing a growing population of Hispanic and Asian residents. 

Many of the same voting precincts with high turnout in recent elections have stood out this year, too. In particular, precincts on the border of neighboring Wake County to the east, and Orange County to the west, have significantly higher voter turnout compared to Southeast Durham and Central Durham County. Those precincts also happen to be Durham’s most bipartisan, with high turnout for both Democrats and Durham’s handful of Republican voters.

Durham’s most high profile race is US House District 4, which pits County Commissioner Nida Allam against incumbent representative Valerie Foushee. The race has drawn national attention, and millions of dollars in spending, which could be contributing to the bump in voter engagement.

We will continue to monitor results as they roll in later tonight.

Today’s Democratic primary for Wake District Attorney determines who will be just the third DA to helm the office since the 1980s. I’m watching because it’s pretty high stakes.

For one, no candidates from other parties filed, so there isn’t a general election in the fall; today’s winner is THE winner. (My colleague Jane Porter has a thorough rundown of the candidates, ICYMI.)

And for two, the district attorney is the single most powerful person in the criminal legal system. DAs decide what cases should move forward in court, which are better addressed by treatment and diversion programs, and often, how the cases are resolved

Criminal justice reformers have targeted the Wake district attorney’s office before over issues like prosecuting marijuana possession, handling instances of officer misconduct, and pursuing the death penalty. 

But this year, there’s not as much crusading for reform, from candidates or otherwise. Maybe that has to do with a searing spotlight on the court system in the wake of the Charlotte light rail stabbing. Or President Trump’s track record of using misrepresented crime rates as justification to deploy officers to blue cities. Or the new state law limiting pretrial release, a common area for reform efforts. Or maybe those who care about equity in our courts are more focused on important state-level races this year. 

Melanie Shekita is running on her record as the most experienced candidate in the race, with 27 years in the Wake DA’s Office, currently as head of the special victims unit. She has the endorsement of a slew of former and current courthouse folks. 

Sherita Walton says her 20 years of legal experience, including five in the Wake DA’s Office and now as an attorney with the Raleigh Police Department, make her the right person for the job. She has the backing of current DA Lorrin Freeman.

Wiley Nickel says his political experience makes him best suited to secure more resources for the understaffed office and pursue political corruption in state government. He has endorsements from a long list of state and local electeds and (at least according to the most recent data), by far the most money. 

Absent a clamoring community movement for change, what will drive the results of the Wake DA’s race—experience, endorsements, connections, cash? I’ll be watching the results.

The winner of tonight’s Democratic primary in House District 37 will face off against three-term incumbent Republican Erin Paré—one of the only Republicans in Wake County’s legislative delegation and a rising star in her party—in November. The southern Wake district, which includes Fuquay-Varina and part of Holly Springs, is a one-time Republican stronghold-turned-true toss-up.

In the running tonight are Winn Decker, an education policy analyst; Marcus Gadson, a law professor at UNC Chapel Hill; and Ralph Clements, an IT consultant. All three are first-time office-seekers, and all three say they have what it takes to beat Paré. 

This race may be only a prelude to the main event in November, but I think it’s exciting in its own right because of what it says about District 37’s changing electorate. The last time there was a competitive Democratic primary here, in 2022, 5,362 people voted. This cycle, 6,320 people voted early alone—signaling a surge of voter engagement on the Democratic side.

Decker, Gadson, and Clements are running on overlapping platforms that emphasize public education, lowering the cost of living, and ending partisan gerrymandering. Their ground game—how well they amass local support and reach voters, 44% of whom are unaffiliated—will probably matter more than their slight policy differences.

On paper, Decker is the frontrunner. He’s raised the most money (about $48,000, per his Q1 campaign finance report) and collected by far the most local endorsements of the three candidates. Gadson trails him closely with $40,000 raised to date, but Decker has Gadson beat on individual named donors who are from North Carolina (59% compared to 49%, by my count) and from Holly Springs or Fuquay-Varina (23% compared to 2%), signaling more local support for Decker. Clements had raised about $14,000 from 9 named donors at the end of Q1.  

Take those numbers with a grain of salt, though, because donors who give less than $50 don’t get their names or addresses recorded on campaign finance reports. Decker reported 63 small donations from unnamed contributors, and Gadson reported 48. Depending where those people live, the candidates’ ratios of local support could be different from what’s reflected by their named contributors.

A new voice will join the Raleigh City Council in 2026 with incumbent Jonathan Lambert-Melton leaving his at-large seat open—and your future representative is among the winners of today’s primary. 

At-large representatives have historically been leading voices on issues of affordable housing and economic development. Because they are also elected by residents across Raleigh, results can be taken as an indicator of how Raleighites feel about specific issues like the affordable housing bond expected to come before voters in November, citizen advisory councils (CACs), and local cooperation with ICE. 

On paper, Republican James Bledsoe has a chance of advancing to November’s general election. He, along with Green Party candidate Joshua Bradley, has repeatedly run for a seat on the city council in past years and has some name recognition. In 2024, Bledsoe even beat out liberal candidates to come third in the race for two at-large seats, placing below incumbents Lambert-Melton and Stormie Forte with about 14% of the vote. Bradley, on the other hand, came in near last with about 8% of the vote. 

But three political newcomers—all Democrats—have also thrown their hats in the ring, and I have my eye on Sana Siddiqui, a small business owner and 26-year resident of Raleigh. Who knew that she co-founded one of my favorite Raleigh events, First Friday Market & Movie Night in Moore Square? Of course, I love any weekend pop-up market, but Siddiqui’s behind-the-scenes work has really benefitted the city’s small businesses, which bodes well for community support. As an added bonus, she actually has some local government experience (serving on two of Raleigh’s advisory boards). 

Clark Rinehart, a longtime pastor turned business consultant, and Cameron Zamot, the 28-year-old founder of Bike Library, are also in the running. (Would it really be a Raleigh City Council election without a liberal under the age of 30?) But if previous elections are any indication, voters may opt for a more tempered voice. We won’t know who the next at-large rep is until November’s general election, but I’m eagerly awaiting the results of the city’s first-ever Raleigh City Council primary. 

The Durham district attorney’s race, like NC-04, is a rematch of the 2022 Democratic primary and likely the most consequential contest on Durham’s slate of criminal justice races this cycle. District Attorney Satana Deberry won handily in 2022, with 79% of the vote against challenger Jonathan Wilson. But four years later, the playing field seems to be shifting. Can Wilson, who has secured a number of endorsements, garner enough support to flip the script in round two?

During Deberry’s eight-year tenure, she has made the DA’s office less punitive for low-level offenders, and improved outcomes for justice-involved individuals by collaborating with local partners on diversion programs and other restorative justice initiatives. Criminal justice reform groups like Emancipate NC praised Deberry for her willingness to push progressive policies forward in the wake of Black Lives Matter.

Though her policies have garnered support from many local leaders, a string of break-ins in downtown Durham the last two years, as well as a couple high profile cases, have brought unwanted attention to the district attorney’s office, souring some residents on Deberry as Durham’s lead prosecutor.

Wilson has said that he plans to be more a pragmatic prosecutor, and improve victims’ services, an issue Wilson and Deberry agreed on. He also said he plans to tackle the truancy rate inside Durham Public Schools, which he attributes to the ongoing juvenile crime issue.

Deberry remains the likely favorite in this two-person primary. She earned the consequential People’s Alliance endorsement, a harbinger of electoral success. But Wilson, with endorsements from The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People and Friends of Durham, and no record to scrutinize, is mounting a formidable campaign.

A total of 68,048 early voting ballots were cast in the 2026 primary election in Wake County, according to unofficial results, surpassing past primary early voting turnout for at least a decade. 

The number represents a little over 12% of total eligible voters in Wake County who cast a ballot during the early voting period, which ended Saturday. 

Registered Democrats represented the highest number of voters during early voting, followed by unaffiliated voters, then registered Republicans. 

About 85% of unaffiliated voters cast a Democratic ballot. Unaffiliated voters can choose which party’s ballot they’d like to cast during the primary.

Some other interesting takeaways from Wake County’s unofficial results from early voting:

• Raleigh voters were the largest group of early Wake County voters by municipality, with 25,280 early votes cast. Two at-large seats and District C for Raleigh City Council are on the ballot for Raleigh voters.
• Herbert Young Community Center in Cary saw the highest number of early voters, with 10,014 ballots cast. 
• 586 ballots were from same-day registrations. 
• The total voter turnout by NC House District was highest for District 37, where three newcomers are on the Democratic ballot.
• 13,523 voters in the closely watched NC-04 congressional race district have already cast a ballot.
• The final day of early voting, Saturday, was the highest single-day turnout in three primary early voting periods (2022, 2024, and 2026) with 10,598 ballots cast. 

It’s Primary Day across the Triangle.

Ballots include everything from local school boards to Congress. While some of the races will narrow partisan fields for general elections in the fall, others drew only candidates from one party and therefore will decide the winners.

In Durham, voters will make their picks for the Durham Public Schools Board of Education, district attorney, sheriff, judges, clerk of court, and one contested state Senate race.

In Orange, residents are voting for sheriff, school board, county commission, register of deeds, and one seat in the state House.

And in Wake, elections are being held for county commission, Raleigh city council, district attorney and state legislature.

Throughout the day, INDY staff will be highlighting the races we’re watching and visiting polling places to talk to voters. This evening, we’ll bring you dispatches from candidates’ watch parties, and of course, results as they come in. While the INDY did not issue primary endorsements (more on that here) you can find comprehensive election coverage and candidate questionnaires linked below.

Check back here for updates throughout the day; due to hours being extended at a polling place in Halifax County, election results statewide are expected to be delayed, The Assembly’s Bryan Anderson reported on X.

Polls are open today from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Remember to stay in line until you have had the chance to cast your ballot.

Have an update from your polling place? Let us know what you’re seeing: [email protected]

And before you head to the polls, check out these voting resources:

• Registration and Sample Ballot Look-Up
• Polling Place Locator
• Candidate Questionnaires
• Our reporting on elections for school board, district attorneys, state legislature, Congress, and more

Political Action Committees (PACs) from across the county are spending a nauseating amount of money to influence your vote in the Triangle-area Democratic Congressional primary between Valerie Foushee and Nida Allam. 

These PACs operate separately from the candidates themselves and can spend as much money as they want on the mailers and TV, radio, and digital ads that are smothering the district.

And thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, it’s all perfectly legal.

The spending by non-candidate affiliated PACs has dramatically dwarfed the paltry sums spent by the candidates themselves ($354,000 by Allam and $457,000 by Foushee).

KEEP READING

Tracking Outside Spending in the 4th Congressional District Primary

The 2022 contest between Rep. Valerie Foushee and Nida Allam was the most expensive congressional primary in state history. PAC spending on their 2026 rematch is rivaling that record. Here’s a running tab.

by Chase Pellegrini de Paur February 26, 2026March 4, 2026

The top candidates in the 4th Congressional District Democratic primary have high profiles in Orange and Durham Counties. Valerie Foushee, the 69-year-old two-term incumbent, is the highest-profile member of an Orange County political dynasty, and has served the area at nearly every level of government over the last three decades. Her challenger, Durham County commissioner Nida Allam, has made herself a fixture of Durham politics and activism since her first election in 2020.

But in order to win the March 3 election—which will all but decide November’s general election result in ultra-blue District 4—they’ll need to win over voters in Western Wake County who are less familiar with both of them, too.

KEEP READING

The Road to Victory in NC-04 Runs Through Western Wake County

Rep. Valerie Foushee and challenger Nida Allam are working to win over 130,000 Wake voters added to the district since their 2022 matchup.

by Chase Pellegrini de Paur and Chloe Courtney Bohl February 25, 2026February 27, 2026

In a recent campaign video posted on social media, a leopard print-clad Congresswoman Valerie Foushee seems almost proud of being outspent in her Triangle-area Democratic primary election.

“An out-of-state PAC is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to unseat me,” she tells the camera, a gleam in her eyes. “And why is this PAC running ads against me funded by billionaires?”

Foushee was referring to spending by Leaders We Deserve, an organization and political action committee (PAC) associated with Gen Z Democratic rabble-rouser and gun control activist David Hogg that has received backing from tech investor (and gun safety advocate) Roy Conway.

By reviewing ads, mailers, and FEC reports, the INDY has identified more than $1 million spent by outside groups like Hogg’s on the 4th Congressional District primary so far this cycle, nearly all in support of Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam’s bid to unseat Foushee. Spending is likely to escalate as groups try to influence voters in the ultra-blue district in the two weeks remaining before Election Day on March 3.

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Outside Money Flows into 4th Congressional District Primary, Again

In the race between U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee and Nida Allam, outside PACs have spent more than $1 million, mostly benefiting the challenger in an election dominated by the issue of campaign finance.

by Chase Pellegrini de Paur February 18, 2026March 3, 2026

Erin Paré, the Republican representative for North Carolina’s 37th House district, usually comes across as mild-mannered on social media. But in November, as Democrats in southern Wake County celebrated historic wins in the 2025 municipal elections, she lashed out. 

Democratic challengers had just ousted Republican incumbent mayors in Fuquay-Varina and Holly Springs—previously considered Republican strongholds—by wide margins. As party strategists took a victory lap on TV, Paré, one of two Republicans in Wake County’s 13-member delegation in the state House, penned a bristly clapback to a pundit’s botched pronunciation of “Fuquay-Varina.”

Pronunciation faux pas aside, Democrats carved an undeniable foothold in southern Wake last fall, and it’s an open question whether Paré’s right-wing politics will still resonate with voters in her fast-growing, increasingly diverse and educated district in 2026.

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In N.C. House District 37’s Democratic Primary, Who Can Beat Incumbent Republican Rep. Erin Paré? 

Three candidates are making the case to take down one of the only Republicans in Wake County’s state House delegation. 

by Chloe Courtney Bohl February 13, 2026February 25, 2026

DeDreana Freeman’s grassroots credibility and nonconformist bent are central to her pitch in the Democratic primary for North Carolina Senate District 22, which covers most of Durham County. It’s a solidly blue seat where the March primary effectively decides the election—and where, this year, Freeman and her opponent, first-term incumbent Sophia Chitlik, share similarly progressive values on most fronts.

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A State Senate Primary Pits a Folk Hero Against a First-Term Force

Two candidates bring different tactics, backgrounds, and reputations to the race to represent District 22.

by Lena Geller February 12, 2026February 12, 2026

Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry is facing off against challenger Jonathan Wilson II in a rematch of the 2022 Democratic primary. Deberry, who was first elected in 2018, is running because “there is still more to do,” she said, while Wilson said he believes the community wants a new voice inside the DA’s office.

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The Democratic Primary for Durham DA is a 2022 Rematch. What’s Changed This Time?

Defense attorney Jonathan Wilson is once again challenging Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry for her seat. Does he have momentum?

by Justin Laidlaw February 10, 2026March 1, 2026

Much has changed about Wake County—not to mention the state, nation, and world—since incumbent District Attorney Lorrin Freeman was first elected as the county’s chief prosecutor in 2014. 

After growing by more than 200,000 people (or about 20%) in the last decade, Wake became the state’s most populous county. The year 2016 saw the rise and election of Donald Trump. A global pandemic followed in 2020, as did widespread civil unrest, the likes of which are playing out again in the streets of cities across the country as stepped-up federal immigration enforcement becomes increasingly violent.  

All of these events have impacted the DA’s office, and it will be a much different place for Freeman’s successor—in all likelihood, one of three Democrats running in the March 3 primary—when they step into it in 2027. (No Republican filed to run.)

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The Democratic Primary for Wake County DA Hinges on Experience—and Perspective

A three-way primary will decide who succeeds longtime District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.

by Jane Porter February 9, 2026March 1, 2026

To be a Durham school board member is to bear a monstrous amount of responsibility—yes, education for 30,000 kids, but also managing a workplace for over 5,000 employees and stewarding the tax dollars of over 340,000 residents—while having almost no power to actually do anything.

Need more money or a new school building? Go beg the county commission to raise taxes even more. Don’t like how the district administration is handling something? Go complain to the superintendent, your one employee, and hope he doesn’t follow a trend of superintendent turnover and leave for another district in a state that actually funds education. Want to take a principled stand for progressive values like Chapel Hill-Carrboro’s school board chair did? Enjoy getting your ass dragged before a state legislature hellbent on prosecuting a culture war rather than passing a budget to, say, pay teachers fairly.

That’ll be the reality for whichever four candidates win seats on the Durham Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education in the March primary.

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We Talked to All 12 Durham School Board Candidates So You Don’t Have To

Here’s a rundown of the candidates’ experience, priorities, and pitches to voters ahead of the March election to fill four seats on the Durham Public Schools Board of Education.

by Chase Pellegrini de Paur February 6, 2026February 16, 2026

The March 3 election includes races from local school boards up to Congress. You can find all of our candidate questionnaires here.

2026 Primary Candidate Questionnaires

The March 3 election includes races from local school boards up to Congress.

by INDY staff February 6, 2026March 3, 2026

Orange County is having its first competitive race for the sheriff’s office since 2018.

Charles Blackwood, who has served as sheriff since 2014, is seeking his fourth consecutive term. Challenger David LaBarre has served with the Durham County Sheriff’s Office since 2003.

Both candidates want to focus on mental health, giving attention to the needs of community members and officers. The candidates differ on their approach to the sheriff office’s budget, with LaBarre campaigning on a more transparent process and Blackwood defending the public nature of approving it.

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In the Orange County Sheriff’s Race, a Longtime Incumbent Faces A Challenger Advocating for Reform

Budget transparency, immigration enforcement, and responding to cases involving mental illness are key issues in the race between incumbent Charles Blackwood and challenger David LaBarre.

by Kennedy Thomason January 30, 2026February 16, 2026