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April 21st Len’s Political Note #721 Don Davis North Carolina 01
2026 General Election
North Carolina’s Congressional Districts, especially NC 01, have been changing. More than once a decade, when once is the usual expectation. On February 5, 2016, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the 1st district, as well as the 12th, were unconstitutionally gerrymandered along racial lines and must be redrawn. The legislature complied before the March 15, 2016 deadline giving North Carolina 01 a D+17 Democratic lean. That map was used for the 2016, 2018, and 2020 election. Congressman GK Butterfield was reelected in each of those three years.
The legislature redrew the map after the 2020 census and the North Carolina Supreme Court approved the map on February 23, 2022, specifying that the new map would be used only for the 2022 election. That map made North Carolina 01 much less Democratic: D+3, but made the Congressional districts as a whole as evenly divided as the state is. For North Carolina 01, Don Davis defeated three other candidates in the Democratic primary and won the general election by 5 points. The statewide result was 7 Republicans and 7 Democrats.
North Carolina was redistricted again by the state legislature, intending more Republican Members of Congress in 2024 and leaving only one toss-up district – North Carolina 01. No Democrats challenged Don Davis in the primary. In the general election, Don Davis defeated businesswoman and veteran Laurie Buckhout by less than 2 points. The statewide result was 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats.
North Carolina 01 is predominantly rural. And it is poor. The median household income is $55,409. The district is slightly whiter than it was during the previous census – 48% rather than 47%. It is not as Black as it had been – 39% instead of 43%.
If Don Davis is defeated in 2026, it would be the first time since the Reconstructionist influenced 1880s that this district in the northeastern part of the state is represented by a Republican. The district now includes the state’s northeastern coast (the inner banks) and stretches south and west approaching Raleigh, the state capital, and Durham, the home of Duke University. In the 1880s, a Black Democrat in North Carolina would have been, make it an understatement, improbable.
Don Davis has been a Democrat all his life. In 1971, he was born and raised in Snow Hill, North Carolina in the eastern part of the state. It looks as if he and his family left for Irving Texas so he could go to high school there. He did not return to Snow Hill until 1998, In 2001, he was elected mayor of that town of 1,500 people.
After high school, Don Davis went to the Air Force Academy where he got his BA in 1994. His military service was in the home front. Religious enough to eventually become a part-time pastor, he paid announcement visits to families to inform them of the battlefield death of a loved one. Skilled enough to take on a high level job, he coordinated Air Force One operations – the President’s airplane. While he was at it, he earned a Master’s Degree from Central Michigan University.
In 1998, Don Davis returned to northeastern North Carolina, to Greenville, the home of East Carolina University. He taught ROTC there and more. He got an MA in sociology, a PhD in educational administration and leadership, and continued teaching at the university after he left the military in 2001. The year Don Daviswas elected mayor, he was a pastor at the church he was raised in. and an assistant professor of aerospace studies at East Carolina.
In 2004, Don Davis considered a run for Congress, but quickly realized that was premature. After being reelected mayor in 2005, he considered his options. In 2008, he defeated a Republican for the State Senate, lost to him in 2010, was elected again in 2012, and was reelected every two years until the Congressional seat was open. In 2022, Don Davis won the Democratic primary with 63% of the vote and was elected by 12,216 votes in the general election. That was a 5 point margin. 2024 was closer. He defeated Republican businesswoman and combat veteran Laurie Buckhout by 6,307 votes – a 2.5 point margin.
No one expects that 2026 will be an easy race for Don Davis. When Republicans redistricted North Carolina, they predicted the 10-4 Congressional margin, but saw North Carolina 01 gradually becoming more and more Republican to give them an 11-3 margin in this state that really is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
Don Davis has managed representing a “toss-up” State Senate seat and, then, a “toss-up” Congressional district by being what he calls himself, “a common sense Democrat.” He went through a transition on the abortion issue while in the State Senate – initially voting to override a Gubernatorial veto of a “Born Alive” bill, but eventually expressing a willingness to codify the Roe v. Wade rules. In Congress, he has been willing to vote with Republicans on some environmental issues, some anti-immigration issues, and on some limitations to Medicare’s capacity to negotiate drug prices. He has been a consistent vote in favor of military support for Israel.
Help Don Davis win another close election in 2026. DONATE.
GIVE MONEY, OF COURSE. GIVE OF YOURSELF AS WELL.
The following is advice from Herb, a 95 year old cousin of mine, a retired businessman who is pretty conservative. He reminds me and all of you. This administration is not normal.
Join the demonstrations. After swearing off demonstrations, my wife and I marched on April 5 and again on April 19. Create your own demonstration. Doctors and nurses against the destruction of Medicaid, for instance. In front of the hospital. Maybe the hospital administrators will join you. Call your Democratic Senators and Congress Members. Tell them to be more visible. Call your Republican Senators and Congress Members. Remind them that Republicans used to believe in limited government. Tell them to act as if they believed in limited government, not autocracy.
Also give money. We need Democrats to win in 2026. The six most vulnerable Democratic House of Representatives winners; the ones whose victories were by the narrowest margins, are:
California 13 Former Assemblyman Adam Gray flipped this seat with a 187 vote win. DONATE. His likely Republican opponent is Javier Lopez, mayor of the small city of Ceres. See Len’s Political Note #716
California 45 Attorney Derek Tran flipped this seat with a 653 votes win. DONATE. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be, though some are urging Michelle Steel to run to get her seat back. See Len’s Political Note #717
Maine 02 Incumbent Jared Golden retained his seat with a 2,706 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be. DONATE anyhow. See Len’s Political Note #719
Ohio 09 Incumbent Marcy Kaptur retained her seat with a 2,832 vote win. We do not yet know who her Republican opponent will be, though some think her 2024 opponent Derek Merrin will run again. DONATE to Marcy Kaptur. See Len’s Political Note #718
Texas 34 Incumbent Vicente Gonzalez retained his seat with a 5,237 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #720
North Carolina 01 Incumbent Don Davis retained his seat with a 6,307 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be. DONATE.
Please note. I have used the margin of victory reported in Wikipedia. It is worth remembering that in my piece supporting Marcy Kaptur for election in 2024, I identified the 12 most vulnerable Democrats. Two of those twelve lost.
I have also asked you to begin making regular donations for a few 2026 statewide candidates:
Georgia’s US Senator Jon Ossoff. A former Congressional aide and investigative documentary film reporter. He was elected in 2020 (2021 including the runoff) by a 50.6-49.4 margin. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #717
Arizona’s Governor Katie Hobbs. A former social worker and secretary of state. She was elected in 2022 by a 50.3 – 49.7 margin. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #712
Arizona’s Attorney General Kristin Mayes. A law professor and former Republican state Corporate Commission Member. She was elected Attorney General as a Democrat in 2022 by 280 votes, a 50.01-49.99 margin. DONATE. See Len’s. Political Note #714
Ohio’s Democratic Secretary of State candidate Bryan Hambley. An appealing Dr. Smith goes to Columbus running for an open Republican seat. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #715
Support Democrat Allison Riggs in her effort to stay on the North Carolina Supreme Court. She won the election in November. Her opponent, Republican North Carolina Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin challenged 65,000+ voters who met North Carolina requirements when they registered to vote, but new laws called for additional information from them. The North Carolina Appeals Court gave those 60,000+ voters 15 days to “cure” their ballots (that is, to provide the additional information about themselves the new laws require). The North Carolina Supreme Court stayed the Appeals Court order and has finally ruled.
The state Supreme Court ruled that approximately 60,000 votes did not have to be withdrawn; that the registration of about 2,000 military votes without photo IDs had to be “cured” for their votes to count (presumably through providing photo IDs), and about 200 votes by North Carolina voters who had never lived in the state would be withdrawn from the voter count (these would include, for instance, children of North Carolina ex-patriots who turned 21 while abroad). This ruling probably ensures Allison Riggs’ victory, but does not end the law suit.
Allison Riggs will continue her lawsuit in the federal Appeals Court to preserve the voting rights of members of the military and members of the ex-patriot community. You can DONATE and help Justice Riggs continue with her law suit. See Len’s Pollitical Note #594
Finally, there are elections in November, 2025. Here is one that is particularly important to pay attention to:
Abigail Spanberger
Governor of Virginia
Former Congresswoman and former member of the CIA Abigail Spanberger is running against the Republican Lt. Governor Winsome Earl-Sears. Let’s replace the Republican governor of Virginia with a Democrat. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #705
