N.C. Democrats break General Assembly supermajority, Orange County elects Democrats

Last night, residents in Orange County and all over the country voted in one of the most closely watched midterms in recent history.

Although the county had a "blue moon" election, meaning no gubernatorial or presidential election was on the ballot, early voting turnout surpassed that of the 2014 election.

That trend continued last night.

Orange County residents voted for a U.S. House of Representatives seat, General Assembly seats, local county offices, a state Supreme Court seat, six constitutional amendments and an affordable housing bond.

U.S. House of Representatives District 4

This was the county's only national race.

David Price won re-election.

He had two challengers. Steven Von Loor, the Republican challenger, is a small business owner from Alabama. He hasn't served in North Carolina politics before. Barbara Howe is a Libertarian and has served four terms as chairperson of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina.

Hillary Clinton won this district by 40.3 points in 2016.

State Senate District 23

Valerie Foushee held onto District 23, and will be returning for third term. 

Foushee, D-Orange, has been serving in the General Assembly for six years. Her Republican challenger was Tom Glendinning, a retired U.S. Marine.

State House District 50

Graig Meyer won re-election to his State House seat.

Meyer, a Democrat, is the incumbent for this seat and has been serving since 2013. He has a background in education. His Republican challenger was Kenneth Rothrock, a lawyer.

State House District 56

Verla Insko regained her seat in the State House.

Insko, a Democrat, currently serves in this seat and has been in the state legislature for 11 terms. She had both Republican and Libertarian challengers.

Marcus Cooke, a Republican, had a background with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Matthew Clements, a Libertarian, wanted to offer an additional choice to Orange County voters.

State Supreme Court

There were three candidates for this seat: Barbara Jackson, a Republican, Chris Anglin, a Republican, and Anita Earls, a Democrat.

Anita Earls, a Democrat, unseated an incumbent to win the race.

State Court of Appeals

There were three seats on the line tonight.

Democrats took all the seats. John Arrowood won seat one, Tobias Hampson won seat two and Allegra Katherine Collins won seat three.

District Attorney: District 18

Jim Woodall, a Democrat, ran unopposed.

 N.C. District Court Judge: District 15B 

 Joseph Moody Buckner, a Democrat, ran unopposed for this seat.

Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor

This race was the only local contested race with three nonpartisan candidates competing. W. Chris Hogan is the incumbent, and his challengers are Morris L. Shambley and Heather Main.

Hogan and Main were elected.

County Offices

All of the candidates in this section of the ballot were Democrats running unopposed and have been elected.

Sally Greene was elected to the Board of Commissioners at-large, Jamezetta Bedford was elected to the Board of Commissioners for District 1 and Earl McKee was re-elected to the Board of Commissioners for District 2. Mark Kleinschmidt was elected as Clerk of Superior Court, Mark Chilton was re-elected as Register of Deeds and Charles Blackwood was re-elected as sheriff. 

Constitutional Amendments

There were six amendments on the ballot:

• Acknowledging the right to hunt, fish and harvest wildlife
• Changing victims' rights
• Capping the maximum state income tax at 10 percent
• Requiring photo identification to vote
• Allowing the state legislature to control judicial appointments
• Allowing party leaders to control appointments to the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement and eliminating the ninth bipartisan member

State voters accepted the first four amendments.

Affordable Housing Referendum

This referendum approved $10 million for affordable housing projects in the county.

115,231 ballots total were cast in Orange County.

@ampogarcic

city@dailytarheel.com

---