After three federal judges decided in February that North Carolina had impermissibly racially gerrymandered its congressional districts, state lawmakers had to quickly redraw the maps and push the state’s congressional primary from March 15 to June 7. Right now, ten of the state’s thirteen congressional districts are held by Republicans; minus a wave on par with 2006 or 2010, the new mapsstill gerrymandered, though not as obviously racially gerrymanderedwill likely produce the same results.
Which means that your next member of Congress might have been selected by just a handful of voters two weeks ago. The June 7 primary saw turnout of just 8 percentdown significantly from the March presidential primary, which had more than four times as many voters.
And because of the three-month delay, the General Assembly also eliminated runoff elections, meaning whoever won a plurality won. (Before, a candidate had to get 40 percent of the primary vote to avoid a runoff.) In the Thirteenth Congressional District in the Triad, gun-shop owner Ted Budd won the seventeen-person (!) Republican contest with just 20 percentfewer actual voters than you could fit in Red Hat Amphitheater. He’s a heavy favorite in November.
Even though very few people decided the winners and losers, the candidates still dropped a lot of coin on these contests. We wanted to see who got the most bang for their buck. To the right, you’ll find the ten primary victors who spent the most money (as of the end of May) per vote.
Democracy, it turns out, isn’t cheap.
Patrick McHenry (Republican, incumbent, District 10)
Spent: $1,471,792
Votes: 14,770
Cost per vote: $99.65 $$$$$$$$$$
Richard Hudson (Republican, incumbent, District 8)
Spent: $1,450,536
Votes: 16,305
Cost per vote: $88.96 $$$$$$$$$
George Holding(Republican, incumbent, District 2)
Spent: $1,571, 509
Votes: 16,999
Cost per vote: $82.97 $$$$$$$$
Robert Pittenger (Republican, incumbent, District 9)
Spent: $749,859
Votes: 9,268
Cost per vote: $80.91 $$$$$$$$
Alma Adams (Democrat, incumbent, District 12)
Spent: $436,632
Votes: 12,356
Cost per vote: $35.54 $$$$
Virginia Foxx (Republican, incumbent, District 5)
Spent: $551,111
Votes: 17,083
Cost per vote: $32.26 $$$$
Walter Jones (Republican, incumbent, District 3)
Spent: $480,273
Votes: 15,722
Cost per vote: $30.55 $$$
Mark Walker (Republican, incumbent, District 6)
Spent: $335,816
Votes: 16,787
Cost per vote: $20 $$
Ted Budd (Republican, District 13)
Spent: $57,501
Votes: 6,308
Cost per vote: $9.12 $
Sue Googe (Republican, District 4)
Spent: $43,870
Votes: 10,841
Cost per vote: $4.05 $
