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Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis fended off a challenge from Republican Army veteran Laurie Buckhout on Tuesday. With all precincts reporting, Davis led Buckhout 49.6% to 47.2%.
“Tonight, we proved that it truly is the People’s House,” Davis said in a statement. “Districts may change, lines may be redrawn, but at the end of the day, the people have the final say.”
“[T]he voters of eastern North Carolina made their choice, and I respect it,” Buckhout wrote in her concession statement. “I called Congressman Davis to congratulate him, and I wish him well, because when he succeeds for this district, we all do. But we will hold him accountable.”
Davis, the chamber’s most conservative Democrat, spent the closing weeks of the election leaning on unaffiliated voters and Republicans to carry him across the finish line. Buckhout, meanwhile, relied on local GOP meet-ups and high-profile events alongside President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson to get her message out.
The expansive district stretching from Oxford to the Outer Banks came at a steep cost to both political parties. With a week before the election, the 1st District saw $52.9 million in ad spending, making it the most expensive U.S. House race on record, according to the AdImpact political tracking firm. The district’s geography likely played a big part in the heavy spending. Traveling from one end to the other requires a 5.5-hour drive and a ferry ride.
Democrats have held the seat for the past 127 years, with a Black Democrat representing the northeastern area since 1992. Republican state lawmakers sought to break that streak by redrawing the district lines last year. If the 2024 election had been held under the new map, Trump would have won by 11.6 percentage points.
On the campaign trail, Davis was careful in his messaging on the president’s policies, saying Trump had done a great job reducing illegal border crossings but was wrong to push for Medicaid cuts through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“You have to break out of this whole notion of … ‘You gotta stick with the party,” Davis said in an interview with The Assembly last month. “My thing is, let’s actually look at the issue. Talk to those you’re actually representing, and then go and do everything you can to represent the people that see you and trust you to make these decisions. I believe, for me, that people will see what we’re trying to do.”
The GOP defeat is the second in a row for Buckhout. She had lost to Davis in 2024 by 1.7 points.
