In the 2022 election for NC House District 113, Republican Jake Johnson, running for his second full term, received 27,267 votes, which worked out to all of them, because the Democratic Party of North Carolina couldn’t find anyone to run against him. Two years before that, Johnson, who was running to fill out the term left by the resignation of fellow Republican Cody Henson, drew 30,367 votes against 20,596 for the Transylvania businessman Sam Edney. The results in both years, in the district and in Polk County specifically, were pretty consistent, with the Republican candidate taking about 60% of the vote.
So it’s easy to see why it might hard for the Democrats to scare up someone to bother running, given the long odds against winning. The state has been gerrymandered so fiercely that few seats are even remotely competitive. Two years ago, of the 170 state house and senate races, the Democrats ran a candidate in just 126, abandoning the rest to the Republicans, and ours was one of those 44 seats.
This time, though, the Democrats have left only two seats for the GOP to keep without a fight. The challenger for District 113 is Flat Rock’s Michele Antalec. Politics aside, you have to respect her willingness to mount a campaign, and even if she doesn’t win your vote, she at least deserves your gratitude for giving you a choice on the ballot. She met me at the Saluda Library a few days before the rains hit.
Resources
Michelle Antalec campaign website
https://www.michellenc113.com/home
Democrats leave races open
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article283107143.html
