North Carolina's 5th Congressional District race is still not settled eleven days after the November 3 midterm elections. After county boards of election across the district completed their canvasses on Friday, November 13, Democratic challenger Chuck Hubbard leads Republican Representative Virginia Foxx by just 331 votes, according to unofficial totals reported by WRAL from the State Board of Elections.
Source: WRAL
The post-canvass count puts Hubbard at 139,770 votes, or 48.7 percent, and Foxx at 139,439 votes, or 48.6 percent, out of 286,788 votes counted in the district. The gap between the two candidates is about 0.12 percent of the total vote — far inside the 1 percent margin that allows the trailing candidate to demand a recount under North Carolina law.
Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections via Call the Map
A seat held since 2005, and considered safe, is on the edge
Foxx, who chairs the powerful House Rules Committee, has represented the 5th District in the northwestern part of the state since 2005, and the seat was widely considered a safe Republican district. She did not concede on Friday, and the results are not yet certified. No statement from Foxx on whether she will seek a recount was included in WRAL's report, although she said last week that the count was not over.
Hubbard, for his part, has travelled to Washington for freshman orientation for new members of Congress and is claiming victory. "We certainly hope that Republicans are going to respect the will of the people in this race," Hubbard told WRAL. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee accused Foxx of prolonging the process if she seeks a recount and urged her to concede. If the result holds, Democrats would win seven of North Carolina's 14 U.S. House seats this year, WRAL reported.
How the lead changed hands after election night
The race has swung back and forth since election night. With all 230 precincts reporting on November 3, Hubbard led by 99 votes. As provisional and cured ballots were counted on Tuesday, November 10, Foxx moved ahead at points during the day, but Hubbard finished that count 335 votes ahead, at 139,788 votes to Foxx's 139,453. Friday's canvass, the formal county-by-county review that confirms the local counts, narrowed that lead slightly to 331 votes.
The slow shift is built into this year's North Carolina timetable. Session Law 2026-60, passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly, extended the period for curing ballot deficiencies and the initial counting of ballots to the fifth business day after the election, so provisional, mail, military and overseas ballots kept changing the totals well after election night. No source reporting on the race has alleged fraud or misconduct; the changes came from ballots being reviewed and added under the normal process.
The recount path, step by step
Under North Carolina General Statute 163-182.7, a losing candidate in a non-statewide race supervised by the State Board may demand a recount if the margin is not more than 1 percent of the total votes cast. Because the 5th District crosses county lines, Foxx's written demand would go to the State Board of Elections, and it must arrive by noon on Tuesday, November 17 — the second business day after the county canvass.
Source: John Locke Foundation
If a recount is demanded, the State Board notifies the county boards, which must retabulate all ballots on their voting machines within three days of receiving the notice and complete the recount within five days of starting it. The retabulation becomes the new official count. Whichever candidate then trails may, within 24 hours, demand a second recount on a hand-to-eye basis in a sample of precincts; if that sample shifts the margin by enough, a full hand count follows.
Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper told WRAL that recounts seldom reverse an outcome: "What we find with recounts is, the vast majority of the time, there's almost no change." A 331-vote gap is small, but it is larger than the shifts recounts usually produce.
Two more North Carolina races are recount-eligible
The 5th District is not the only unresolved North Carolina contest. In the 10th District, Democrat Ashley Bell formally asked the State Board of Elections for a recount on Friday. Republican Representative Pat Harrigan had 146,590 votes, or 49.63 percent, to Bell's 144,081 votes, or 48.78 percent — a margin of 0.84 percent. "The margin between my vote total and Pat Harrigan's vote total is 0.84 percent. This entitles me to request a recount," Bell wrote to the board, according to WGHP FOX8. A full machine recount there is expected to begin next week and finish by November 23.
Source: WRAL
In a third race, Republican Representative David Rouzer led Democrat Kimberly Hardy by 2,311 votes; it was not immediately clear whether Hardy would request a recount. Earlier in the week, Republican Representative Greg Murphy conceded the 3rd District to Democrat Raymond Smith, who led with 118,488 votes (49.43 percent) to Murphy's 118,195 (49.31 percent), a difference of 293 votes. North Carolina had four undecided House races this week, the most of any state, with Republican incumbents challenged in each one.
What happens next
One county is not finished. Halifax County did not complete its canvass on Friday after officials found a 16-vote discrepancy at a precinct in Roanoke Rapids; it will recount there and faces a Monday deadline to finalize its results. The State Board of Elections is scheduled to meet on November 24 to certify the statewide results. Foxx's decision — concede, or file for a recount by noon Tuesday — is the next move in the 5th District, and it will decide whether North Carolina's closest House race ends this month or runs through a full retabulation first.