North Carolina's 1st District Draws $42 Million in Ad Spending

Republicans have spent more than $42 million on advertising in North Carolina's 1st Congressional District between Sept. 1 and Election Day, according to an analysis of AdImpact data. The spending is for a seat the party expected to win easily after redrawing the district's lines late last year.

President Trump and his political team pressured Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps to build a firewall against midterm losses. Under the new lines in North Carolina's 1st, Trump would have won by more than 11 points in 2024. The district is now widely considered a toss-up.

Trump held a rally in eastern North Carolina to support Republican candidates Laurie Buckhout in the 1st District and Jennifer Balkcom in the 11th. Trump said House Speaker Mike Johnson asked him to give them a special call out because they are going to have close races.

Buckhout, a retired Army colonel who lost in the district two years ago, addressed the partisan advantage. "There are more of us," Buckhout said. "All you've got to do is get out the vote."

Democratic Rep. Don Davis is campaigning at an early voting location in Swansboro, at the far southeastern tip of the district, an area he has not represented before. His home county was drawn out of the district, and he received all or part of six new counties. "This is my third run on a third new map," Davis said.

Morgan Jackson, a North Carolina political consultant running Democrat Roy Cooper's Senate campaign, said, "I think they believed that they had beaten Don Davis with the redistricting pen." Jackson called the redrawn map a "dummymander rather than a gerrymander."

Nathan Gonzales, editor of Inside Elections, said Republicans gained an advantage in 15 congressional districts nationwide. Some of those seats were expected to be easy victories, but the party is spending millions to win them.

Two Florida congressional districts redrawn to remove Democratic incumbents are nearing a combined $90 million in ad spending. In Texas, districts drawn for a 10-point Trump advantage have shifted toward Democrats.