This election cycle, nearly a third of incumbent Republican state legislators seeking reelection have a primary challenger.
That’s more than normal. In 2024, 12% of incumbent Republicans running for reelection faced a primary challenger, according to a Carolina Public Press analysis. In 2022, 19% had to fight to get to the general election.
Their challengers’ motivations this year run the gamut.
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Some disagree with representatives’ stances on particular issues. Several are part of a movement of educators who switched their party registration to Republican in the hopes of being more competitive. Others simply feel like it’s time for a change.
This article takes a close look at three of those races, the primary challenges to northern Wake County Rep. Mike Schietzelt, Freedom Caucus leader Rep. Keith Kidwell, R-Beaufort, and Sen. Jim Burgin, R-Harnett.
A test case for Educators on the Ballot
Wake County Rep. Mike Schietzelt says he doesn’t mind a progress report.
The freshman state representative is facing a challenger in Michele-Joyner Dinwiddie, one of six educators who switched their party registration to Republican to compete in the primary.
The group, NC Educators on the Ballot, acknowledges that in many redder legislative districts, the primary effectively decides the election. So, they decided to fight where it counts, on an education platform.
“I don’t have any problem with what they’re doing,” Schietzelt said. “If they think that education issues need to be brought to the forefront in Republican primaries, then this is fully in bounds.”
Not everyone is as content; the North Carolina Republican Party disqualified members of the group from party endorsement, recognition and resource use.
Schietzelt, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and attorney, said he has made education a priority in his own campaign. While there is no state budget yet, he is proud of the House’s proposed budget, which would raise starting teacher pay by 22%.
Last year, he sponsored several education bills, including a bill regulating cellphone use in schools, and another signing North Carolina onto a federal tax credit for contributions to certain K-12 education scholarship granting organizations, including to cover private school tuition.
“I’m happy to have someone come out and challenge that messaging, to basically see if my message is actually landing,” Schietzelt said.
Joyner-Dinwiddie, a Wake County Public Schools math teacher, didn’t just switch her voter registration from Democrat to Republican for this campaign as a primary challenger. As she’s gotten older and become a mother, she said she’s gained more “traditional values.”
If she were elected, though, Joyner-Dinwiddie said she wouldn’t vote with either party 100% of the time. She isn’t completely against private school vouchers, but believes public education must be funded at a level where it’s a real choice for parents. She doesn’t support the pending bills to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from public education. And she wants a “hands-off approach” to education; parents should trust teachers to do their jobs, she said.
Beyond education, Joyner-Dinwiddie says she’s concerned about the growth of the district, which includes Wake Forest and Rolesville. She doesn’t want to become traffic-congested Raleigh. Her solution is to build “greener,” more sustainable infrastructure.
Schietzelt is also focused on development. In his first term, he helped get the Capitol Boulevard project moving, without tolls. He also worked with Wake County to secure local grant funding for a series of projects, including a skate park and athletic complex. Looking forward, Schietzelt wants to continue moving delayed projects along, address rising property taxes and resolve a Certificate of Need issue blocking a new emergency department in Wake Forest.
“If we can’t get a hospital in one of the fastest-growing areas of the largest county in the state, then there’s a problem with that process,” he said.
Regardless of whether the incumbent or the challenger wins the primary, the winner will face Democrat Evonne Hopkins. While Schietzelt defeated her with 50% of the vote in 2024, the district is classified as a toss-up by the Civitas Partisan Index.
He’s, again, not especially worried. He feels confident that being himself will win the seat.
“My district is pragmatic and thoughtful,” Schietzelt said. “I don’t think it’s overly ideological, and I think my voters want leaders who are going to worry about the roads and schools and the costs that they’re imposing on people and keeping people safe. They don’t want people who are going to dive headlong into the culture wars issues. That’s just not who I am.”
Joyner-Dinwiddie said she and Schietzelt are probably more similar than they are different. But what she brings to the table is a unique perspective, as a Black woman.
“You either want your general, typical House of Representatives representative, or you want to try something different,” she said.
A four-term incumbent faces farmer challenger
State Rep. Keith Kidwell has a provision tucked away on page 13 of the North Carolina Farm Bill of 2025 to blame for his primary challenger. He represents House District 79, including Beaufort, Hyde, Pamlico and part of Dare County.
The bill, which is stuck in the House, would address many agricultural issues, including what level of liability pesticide companies face when consumers are harmed by their product. The provision in question would limit that liability.
Proponents, including Republican challenger Darren Armstrong, say the provision is a necessary protection against frivolous lawsuits. Kidwell did not respond to multiple calls and emails requesting an interview, but has told other media outlets that he wasn’t a fan of the provision.
“(Pesticide companies) would have been protected retroactively and in perpetuity from you suing them, and I did not feel that that’s something that should have happened,” Kidwell told WUNC. “So (State Rep.) Jimmy (Dixon) got mad at me for that, and went and dug up a primary opponent for me.”
Armstrong, who operates a family-owned seed business in Beaufort County, said the bill wouldn’t have given pesticide companies “total immunity,” but would have allowed consumers to hold them accountable without bankrupting them.
“Farmers have to have these products to farm,” he said. “We’ve got to have companies that produce seed. We’ve got to have companies that produce products that you control weeds with, that you control disease and insects with. We’ve got to have those things. So there’s got to be a happy medium in there somewhere.”
Dixon and Agricultural Commissioner Steve Troxler are backing Armstrong. Various other farmers, crop producers and loggers are also supporting the challenger, according to campaign finance data. Kidwell’s got the support of the National Rifle Association, North Carolina Right to Life and various management and construction firms.
Farmers may be a dying breed nationally, but in North Carolina, agriculture is still a very important industry. Armstrong thinks the legislature could use a farmer’s perspective to get agricultural policy on a better track. He also says he can bring his experience in diplomacy as former chairman of the U.S. Grains Council to future budget negotiations.
“I’ve heard my competitor say, ‘Well, we passed a budget,’” he said. “Well, that’s not good enough. You can’t send them something they’re not going to vote for. They can’t send you something you’re not going to vote for, then sit there and point fingers at each other. That’s not leadership. Leadership is finding a place where we can agree to get something done.”
Kidwell is the leader of the North Carolina Freedom Caucus, a group of right–wing legislators. He has a background in tax and accounting, which he puts to use as chairman of the House Finance Committee.
In a January candidate forum, he told attendees that he’s led the charge on tax cuts since taking the chairmanship seat about five years ago.
“I’m going to continue to work on bringing jobs into the east, as I’ve done,” he said. “I’m going to continue to work on funding projects for infrastructure, to make sure there are highways, railways, byways, and they are ready to receive the business that we want to bring into this area.”
A double primary in central North Carolina
Before the speeches began, attendees of the Western Harnett County GOP candidate forum saluted the American flag in the corner, conveniently located directly behind a life-size cutout of President Donald Trump.
While Trump’s name isn’t on the ballot, his agenda remains front and center in this year’s elections for many voters and candidates.
That’s certainly the case for Jheri Hardaway, one of two Democratic candidates in the four-way Senate District 12 race. The district, which encompasses Lee, Harnett and part of Sampson County, is a likely Republican seat according to the Civitas Partisan Index. Still, it’s one of only four state legislative districts with at least one challenger from each major party, setting up a Republican and a Democratic primary.
Hardaway, a journalist and educator, and her Democratic opponent Tanya Anderson, a retired Army veteran, decided to run in the red district. Hardaway said she was tired of yelling at the TV.
Incumbent Sen. Jim Burgin, however, did not mention Trump when describing his legislative plans. He might not need to bother to appeal to the Republican base to win.
Instead, he spoke about addressing rising property taxes, calling out alleged fraud at a Lillington community health center, bringing a new nuclear plant to the state, crafting a women’s health bill dealing with midwives and birthing centers, and ideally, spending the state’s first $13 million of a federal rural health grant on different medical technology and drug treatments.
Burgin was first elected in 2018, and has easily squelched any opposition since. He’s become one of the legislature’s foremost health care experts, as chairman of the health care committee, health appropriations committee and co-chair of the joint legislative oversight committee on health and human services.
Last session, three bills he primarily sponsored became law, including a bill loosening degree requirements for school nurses and the Parents Protection Act, which ensures biological or adoptive parents won’t be punished for an unwillingness to support their child’s gender transition or identity.
Burgin raised over $37,000 in the second half of 2025, including max donations from political action committees associated with the Eastern Band of Cherokees, North Carolina Association of Nurse Anesthetists and North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association.
In short, Burgin’s competitors have a big hill to climb.
Even so, Republican challenger Tim McNeill thinks he can do some good in Raleigh. McNeill served as a Harnett County commissioner from 2000 to 2012, and was a lifelong farmer before retiring. McNeill previously lost state house bids in 2006 and 2012.
After his wife passed last year, he said he decided to “get back into it.”
During his time on the county commission, the Harnett County commission created the Harnett Health System, built numerous schools and parks and expanded the county’s rural water and sewer utility system.
McNeill said he can do the same thing on the state level, and emphasized his plans to provide better education for North Carolinians without raising taxes.
“I think I can succeed, but time will tell,” he said.
It’s not about winning for Anderson. She’s lost to Burgin before, in 2024, with 38% of the vote. It’s about giving the community a candidate “willing to fight.”
She thinks she’s a better pick than Hardaway for that. In December, Anderson unsuccessfully launched a residency challenge against Hardaway based on Democratic organizing software data. Both serve on the Harnett County Democratic Party executive committee.
Since Anderson lost in 2024, she’s invested time and effort into the community, she said. Now, she feels like she has the name recognition and a pulse on what the community needs.
Hardaway has her own vision. She’s not thinking red or blue; she’s thinking green. For her, green represents moving forward, protecting agriculture and building sustainably. The area is growing, and she wants to ensure the supply of fire stations, police officers and teachers matches that growth, or development will be detrimental to the district.
Yes, it’s going to be hard to win. But it’s worth the effort, she says.
“I can’t watch what’s going on in our world right now and not do anything,” she said.
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