Guilford County will have a new representative in Congress.
Democrat Kathy Manning won the North Carolina Sixth District congressional race with 62.3 percent of the vote to 37.7 percent for Republican Lee Haywood.
It’s difficult to keep up with the congressional districts in North Carolina since they are redrawn after every election.
Currently Guilford County is represented in Congress by Republican Sixth District Congressman Mark Walker and Republican 13th District Congressman Ted Budd.
However, under the 2020 redistricting, all of Guilford County is in the Sixth District, which also includes most of Winston-Salem in Forsyth County.
When that redistricting was finalized, Walker, who has represented the Sixth District since the late Sixth District Congressman Howard Coble retired in 2014, announced that he would not be running for reelection in 2020.
The 13th District where Budd won reelection to his third term with 68.3 percent of the vote over Democrat Scott Huffman with 31.7 percent no longer includes any of Guilford County.
So Guilford County will go from being represented in Congress by two Republicans to being represented by one Democrat.
In 2018, Budd defeated Manning in the 13th District race. Although Manning lost, she raised and spent millions, which made the race competitive and forced the Republicans to spend a lot more money than they had planned.
The fact that Walker chose not to run for reelection is a good indication of how heavily the current Sixth District leans Democrat. Walker is considered a likely Republican candidate for Sen. Richard Burr’s Senate seat. Burr has already announced he won’t run for reelection when his term expires in 2022.
Haywood ran a respectable and energetic race with the odds all stacked against him
“I cannot vote for more of the same, and I cannot support Nancy Pelosi or Paul Ryan to lead Congress. We need fresh faces and bold ideas leading both parties,” Manning wrote in an Independence Day post on Medium. “The only way to change Washington is to change who’s in charge of Washington. For July 4th, I am declaring my independence from the special interests and knee jerk party loyalty.”
This was from the Raleigh newspaper in 2018. It will be interesting to see if Manning is consistent with her word and walks the talk!! Actions speak louder than words.
First, congratulations to Mrs. Manning on her congressional victory. I recall when she was running against Congressman Walker in 2018 she pledged (if elected) she would not support Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the house. I wonder if she will honor that pledge when she is sworn in in 2021?
Here we go again, again. I knew the Coop was running for the gov when he was working as Atty General. The Coop was too warm and fuzzy (can you say Jim Hunt?) to lose his re-election as the Gov.
So in two years, Sen Burr will be retiring. And who do you think will want his job? Manning or Cooper.
This campaign is just now beginning, and we’ll see it for two years.
There is no escape.
It wasn’t right that the Sixth District was redrawn so that there’s no hope of ever again having a conservative to represent us when it was clear the area voters had historically leaned that way. This is clear gerrymandering and has happened before throughout the state seemingly in favor of liberal candidates.
The fact that Walker was too much of a wimp to run for fear of losing and the GOP didn’t put out the money for a decent campaign against Manning proves that they were willing to abandon those who had been loyal voters for decades. They can forget any support in a Senate race in the future because of that attitude. Leave me to the wolves and you no longer have my vote.
I don’t think it was a wimp-out. With the redistricting, there was virtually a zero chance for any Republican.
Re-districting is a political ploy to make a seat secure for one party. C’est la vie.
What is her REAL name???
As in the one on her birth certificate?
Does anybody know?
Some people like to change their names…