North Carolina Sen. Valerie Foushee won the Democratic nomination for U.S. House District 04 Tuesday night after earning a significant lead early in the primary’s results.
Foushee, who served in District 23 of the state Senate for eight years, earned more than half of the early voting with the second place vote-getter Nida Allam earning close to 37 percent. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Foushee held 46.15 percent of the vote.
“I was just humbled and honored that, in a race such as this, we were able to be victorious,” Foushee told 97.9 The Hill Tuesday night. “It was a long, hard race.”
Trailing in third and fourth places were Clay Aiken and Ashley Ward, who finished with 7.3 percent and 5.4 percent respectively.
Allam, who is a Durham County Commissioner, shared a concession message on social media around 9:45 p.m.
Foushee was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2012 to represent Chapel Hill and, but her time was short-lived. The Orange County native was tapped to fill Eleanor Kinnaird’s seat in the state Senate in 2013 and has been re-elected four times since. Prior to that, Foushee served on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education and was the first Black woman elected to the Orange County Board of Commissioners.
Congressional District 4, which covers Orange, Durham, Alamance, Person and Granville counties, is currently served by Rep. David Price. Price announced in October he would not seek re-election after his 17th term in the U.S. House. His longevity in the district, which covered primarily Orange, Durham and some of Wake and Chatham counties before redistricting in 2022, reflects the Democratic stronghold of the Triangle region.
Foushee said she was grateful voters recognized her service and selected her to be the Democratic nominee for that seat. She shared several of the key issues she says voters conveyed to her while on the campaign trail.
“Certainly voting rights are on the minds of every North Carolinian,” said Foushee. “I think what we’ve gone through as it relates to voter ID and other aspects of voting [suppression] and gerrymandering.
“But of course now, people are talking about affordable housing, gas and groceries’ [prices,]” she continued. “And people are talking about access to affordable health care, quality education. All of those things that we know that are the discussions behind held around kitchen tables. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to address those issues.”
On the Republican side of the primary, Courtney Geels defeated Robert Thomas with 64.5 percent of the vote. Geels is a first-time candidate and an emergency room nurse, who will face off against Foushee in the general election in November.
Courtney Geels earned the Republican nomination in U.S. House District 04. (Photo via Courtney Geels for Congress.)
Photo via Valerie Foushee for Congress.
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