North Carolina State Rep. Rodney Pierce, D-Halifax, didn’t have time to eat as he campaigned ahead of this year’s primary election. By the time he greeted the various preachers and community leaders dispersed throughout Mozine and Walter Lowe’s lakefront home in Littleton, N.C., it was showtime.
A bit later, at a fundraising event at the Acorn Center, Pierce spent his time chatting with donors before his second speech of the day. He never made it to the dinner buffet. Eventually, in the final hours of the evening, he sat down for a meal with his campaign team at a local restaurant. It was a successful — but exhausting — day on his path to reelection, he thought.
In North Carolina, primary candidates have a little over two months between the filing deadline and Election Day to make their case to voters. Election Day is March 3, early voting begins in mid-February and absentee ballots go out starting in January.
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That’s not much time for challengers to make their name known. The short runway means incumbent state legislators don’t usually have to break their necks to secure a primary win.
Pierce may be an exception. He’s up against former legislator Michael Wray, who is back with a vengeance after being renounced by his own party in the 2024 election over several controversial votes with the Republican caucus.
State Rep. Shelly Willingham, D-Edgecombe, may have reason to sweat, too. He faces a primary challenger in Patricia Smith after his own series of high-profile votes that helped the Republican majority override the past two Democratic governors’ vetoes. This election cycle, Willingham has spent over $3,000 on gas traveling between the state legislature in Raleigh and his district to campaign, he told Carolina Public Press.
In the eyes of the North Carolina Democratic Party, voting against the caucus in any circumstance is a red flag. Voting with the Republicans to override the governor’s vetoes is as good as a mortal sin. Particularly when, as in the current North Carolina House of Representatives, Republicans have one seat shy of a supermajority. That means that they need at least one Democrat’s support to defy Gov. Josh Stein’s will.
Willingham has been that one Democrat before. More often, he and Wray have been one of a handful of defectors that often includes former State Rep. Cecil Brockman, D-Guilford, Garland Pierce, D-Scotland, and Mecklenburg Democrats Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed. With the exception of Pierce, all represent fairly secure Democratic districts.
For Rodney Pierce, Wray, Willingham and Smith, the primary is the real election. Who wins the battles may determine more than two seats; it might impact whether Stein’s vetoes will stand.
Primary contest: Willingham vs. Smith
There’s much talk about tables in the House District 23 primary contest between Willingham and Smith.
The pair are vying to represent a trio of poor, rural counties in Northeastern North Carolina: Bertie, Edgecombe and Martin. Willingham has been in office since winning his first election in 2014. Before, he served as a school board member, election board member and county commissioner. Smith is an accountant, minister and Martin County Democratic Party treasurer.
At a recent primary candidate forum at E.J. Hayes Alumni Center in Williamston, Willingham and Smith sat side by side, taking turns pitching themselves to Martin County residents.
Smith went first. She highlighted the district’s issues. First and foremost, health care. Martin County lost its hospital a few years ago. East Carolina University Health needs $220 million and a halt to Medicaid cuts to bring it back in a limited capacity, which seems unlikely without a Medicaid deal or state budget. There’s no EMS or urgent care either, as of late January.
Smith is also concerned about the state’s education system, rising insurance premiums and small business survival in the district.
“Our future at this point is at stake,” Smith said. “We’ve been under the same representation for over a decade now, and we’re not progressing. So I believe at this point, we need change.”
She also criticized Willingham for being disloyal to Democrats.
During the 2025-26 session, Willingham has voted with Republicans to override vetoes six times, including on House Bill 193, which allows certain private school employees and volunteers to conceal carry on school property; House Bill 549, which expands the state auditor’s investigative scope to any entity that receives state or federal funding; and Senate Bill 266, which removes an interim 70% carbon emission reduction goal for electric public utilities like Duke Energy, previously set for 2034, on the way to 2050 carbon neutrality. It also allows those utilities to charge ratepayers for the construction costs of electric generating facilities before the projects are complete.
“We need someone that’s going to be strong, bold and that’s not going to sway,” Smith said.
Willingham is unapologetic. He told CPP that he listens to proponents and detractors of each bill, considers each side along with his inside knowledge, makes a decision and sticks with it. He doesn’t ask how the governor or his caucus feels about it. He also doesn’t “trade” votes for influence among the Republican caucus, he said. He’s willing to accept the consequences of his independent streak.
If HB193 dealt with public schools, he wouldn’t have supported it, he said. But he thinks private schools should have the freedom to do what they want. He voted for SB266 because he doesn’t think it will cause energy rates to increase on its own. In recent years, he’s been a proponent of charter school legislation because he supports all types of education, he said. He doesn’t see eye-to-eye with most of his fellow Democrats, who think state money to charter schools comes at the expense of public education.
“When the governor asks me to change my vote, well, why would I change my vote?” he asked. “I mean, the bill didn’t change.”
When it was Willingham’s turn to wield the microphone to address potential primary voters, he was matter-of-fact. One person can’t make anything happen at the General Assembly, he told the crowd. Democrats can introduce all the bills they want, but they won’t go anywhere. The only way to operate as an influential member of the minority party is to build relationships and compromise with the other side, he said.
A decade of that strategy has earned Willingham a spot on 23 legislative committees — more than any other legislator — and a chairmanship on one, the House Ethics Committee. He serves on the Rules Committee, which sees every bill before it hits the floor for a vote. This year, he is a member of the budget conference committee. Throughout his tenure, he said he’s secured $62 million for Martin and Edgecombe county school systems, funding for the Edgecombe County megasite and water mitigation aid, among other appropriations.
As for the Martin County hospital? Willingham is working on it “24/7,” he said.
He’s asking for hospital money in the budget, he said. While every district has health care needs, not every Democrat is in his position, with the relationships he’s developed.
“If there’s nobody at the table advocating for you, nothing’s going to happen,” Willingham told attendees. “I’m at the table. So what is the alternative to take me away from the table?”
Smith prefers a seat at a different table, she told Carolina Public Press. To her, the governor is the president of North Carolina. She wants to be a part of his house, sitting at his table.
“If I can’t be with him, then I don’t need to be in the house,” she said. “I’m not going to be that one Democrat (who votes with Republicans). I’m not going to sway, I’m not going to bend, and I’m not going to betray my party. I’m going to be a team player.”
Smith was appalled when she heard Willingham voted to allow certain private school employees to conceal carry. What happens if a child gets a hold of a gun? Or a teacher has a particularly bad day? She also doesn’t buy that getting the Martin County hospital back is as complicated as Willingham makes it seem. Schools are disappearing, educators are leaving because of low pay, and she thinks she could do a better job at stemming the losses.
“When I started thinking about running, I knew it would be a hard race,” Smith said. “But, as I look at the record, his performance being in there a decade, it’s not so hard. I think the hardest part of the race is just getting the people educated so that they will come out and vote.”
Rematch: Pierce vs. Wray
What is a “real” Democrat? The question is more than philosophical in the primary for District 27, which spans Halifax, Northampton and Warren counties in Northeastern North Carolina.
Wray, a former state legislator and small business owner, argues that a real Democrat “is willing to work across party lines to get things done for his constituents and his district,” he said in a Facebook post.
“My opponent criticizes me for voting with the Republicans on the state budget, but those votes gave pay raises to state employees and teachers, and it provided more than $200 million to our county governments, our cities and towns and local non-profits,” the post stated.
Wray declined an interview and chose not to respond to a list of emailed questions from CPP.
For Pierce, the definition is a bit different.
“Real Democrats don’t vote to take money out of public schools,” he said. “A real Democrat will not represent the birthplace of environmental justice in Warren County and have an anti-environment voting record. A real Democrat won’t take the power of a sheriff to determine who can legally purchase a firearm in their county. A real Democrat won’t vote to raise the cost of living by raising your energy bill, by raising your homeowners and auto insurance rates.”
Most importantly, a “real” Democrat won’t override the governor’s vetoes, Pierce said.
Wray served in the state legislature from 2005 until his 2024 primary election loss to Pierce by 34 votes. In the 2023-24 legislative session, he was the Democrat who voted with Republicans at the highest rate. The session before, he voted with Republicans at a higher rate than two actual Republicans.
His aisle-crossing tendencies included key veto override votes on the North Carolina Farm Act of 2023, which stripped wetland protections; the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which banned transgender girls and women from competing in female athletic categories; House Bill 808, which barred gender transition procedures for minors; and House Bill 10, which required sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration officials and funded the state’s private school voucher program.
The ice from the previous week’s winter storm still coated the backroads leading to the Lowe’s household. Inside, several dozen faith leaders caught up over chicken salad sandwiches and fruit.
Former Congresswoman Eva Clayton — the first Black woman to represent North Carolina in Congress — sat in the front row to listen to Pierce speak. Former Congressman G.K. Butterfield was also present.
Pierce spoke of the district’s “powerful Black history,” and how his career as a history teacher made him realize he had the responsibility to carry that legacy forward.
Recent redistricting has targeted the region — in 2023, redrawn maps shifted legislative districts in Northeastern North Carolina, and in 2025, Republicans redrew U.S. House Districts 1 and 3 to make the former more Republican in an attempt to gain one more seat. Clayton was the first Black person to represent that district for nearly a century. The current First District representative, Don Davis, is also Black.
Pierce is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit over the 2023 redraw, which is now in federal appeals court. In the suit, plaintiffs argue that the redistricting violated the Voting Rights Act with racial gerrymandering that weakened Black voting power by dividing the region’s Black Belt.
Pierce asked the pastors in the room to give him time with their congregations ahead of the primary. After all, people don’t always go to town halls.
“There is no separation of church and state in the Black community,” he said.
Pierce shared a few of his first term accomplishments. He launched a program that brings the capital to the constituents, by educating them about how state politics works. He’s partnered with county health departments to host blood drives. He launched the inaugural Eastern North Carolina Civics Bowl to raise “the leaders of tomorrow.” And he asked Stein, House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger to form a bipartisan rural violent crime task force.
The governor apparently approves, because he granted Pierce a rare primary endorsement this cycle. Stein said the Republican-led legislature is pushing legislation that will make North Carolina “less safe and less strong.” He positioned Pierce as a key element of his strategy to block that agenda.
“They want to authorize teenagers to carry concealed weapons with no safety training whatsoever, to whitewash the diversity that makes this state strong, and to completely ban abortion with no exceptions whatsoever,” he said. “But because you all elected Rodney Pierce and other Democrats to the General Assembly to uphold my veto, none of those bills will become law.”
Meanwhile, Wray has the backing of many local leaders in the primary, including John Earl Alston, Warrenton small business owner and head of Warren County Political Action Committee. He said Wray is a “straightforward” and “honest” man who’s brought money back to the district for fire departments, water and sewer projects and more.
“He has delivered for Warren County, and that’s why we’re going to support him,” Alston said. “We’re trying to do more economic development in Warren County, and to try to hold people’s taxes down, we need to get a little state funding to help us out. And Mike is the man who can work across the aisle to help get funding to our county.”
On his campaign Facebook page, Wray also talks about being a leader in the state’s Medicaid expansion. If elected, he wrote he would defend Medicaid expansion, invest in public schools, overhaul the NC Lottery to increase the amount going to education and invest in economic development, job creation and mental health in rural North Carolina.
In a December 2025 post, he called out to Republicans who may want to vote for him, reminding them to change their party registrations to unaffiliated so they could cast a ballot in the Democratic primary.
While Wray’s strategy of cozying up to Republicans might bring the district money, Pierce doesn’t think it’s the optimal one.
“It might be a short-term come up, but it’s gonna be a long-term loss,” he said.
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