The primary night celebration for Patricia Smith of Williamston began at a Holiday Inn Express in Eastern North Carolina when she took a 700-vote lead over longtime Democratic state Rep. Shelly Willingham of Edgecombe County.
“Oh, we got this in the bag,” Smith, a minister and accountant, later recalled telling her friends and family.
25-year-old pharmacist Caroline Eason of Lawndale felt her fate was sealed when a campaign volunteer told her that she heard “Because He Lives” playing over church loudspeakers at a voting site.
The Christian hymn is Eason’s favorite, and word of it playing shortly before the polls closed brought her a sense of peace following a frenetic 10 months of campaigning against 16-year Republican incumbent state Rep. Kelly Hastings of Gaston County.
“I felt like I was called to run for this seat,” Eason said.
Eason and Smith couldn’t be further apart politically. In an interview, Smith told The Assembly that she’d never vote to override a veto from Gov. Josh Stein.
“I accept him as our president of North Carolina,” Smith said. “You do not sit at the table with your president and go against your president. That’s just not cool.”
Eason, meanwhile, couldn’t envision a scenario where she’d find herself at odds with the House Republican caucus.
For all their differences, their victories in their party primaries reflect dissatisfaction with the status quo in Raleigh and an appetite for change among voters across the political spectrum.
Eason, a first-time candidate, said she planned on running for the legislative seat after Hastings initially announced his retirement. When Hastings changed his mind a couple months later, Eason decided to stick it out. She said the biggest obstacle was getting people across the district to know and trust her.
She went to 50 different community events. By day, she’d help manage her family’s pharmacy. By night, she’d attend high school football games, go to concerts in Shelby, and even pull up to an event in Bessemer City tailored toward people who owned Jeeps. (Eason doesn’t own one.)
“I would just go to these events that were community centered and introduce myself to people and meet people where they’re at,” Eason said. “I would introduce myself to people with a small card and tell them what I was doing.”
Smith, meanwhile, had experience running for office. She finished a distant third in a 2023 mayoral race for the 5,000-person town of Williamston.
“It gave me some experience in running, but it was a last-minute thing,” Smith said of the mayoral race. “When I ran for this race, I was prepared to win. I was running to win.”
Smith and Eason now advance to the general election, where they’ll be the favorites to win, based on the political makeup of their districts.
Smith said her top legislative priority next year would be to get a comprehensive budget passed.
“Two years of not having a full budget is too long,” Smith said.
Eason said she wants to work to lower prescription drug costs and build more transparency into the health care system. She cited the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company as a resource because it discloses drug costs, a 15% markup it charges, and shipping costs.
“The Cost Plus model is a great concept because you know where your money is going,” Eason said.