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House District 120

Cherokee, Macon, Clay & Graham counties · 2026
Likely R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+47.4
runs 45.7 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018
2024 result
R+50.2
won by Gillespie (R)
Caleb Brown
Democrat · Candidate
  • Brown is a high school social studies teacher and varsity boys and girls soccer coach who has lived in Highlands for seven years.
  • He serves as a second lieutenant in the North Carolina Army National Guard and founded a fundraiser benefiting Camp Kemo, a pediatric cancer charity.
campaign site
Rep. Karl Gillespie
Republican · Incumbent
  • Communications contractor and farmer representing Cherokee, Clay, Graham, and Macon counties in the NC House.
  • Founded National Communications, Inc. in 1999 and has served in the House since 2021, where he is House Majority Whip.
campaign site

Election night results

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Live returns and a precinct map for this race on Nov. 3.

Early voting

See early voting ›

Ballots cast so far in this district, in person and by mail. Updated every morning.

Who lives here

The people of House District 120, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$56,508
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
26%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
12%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
80%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
3.6%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
13%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Franklin 33% · Murphy 26% · Hayesville 12% · Robbinsville 8% · Andrews 5%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 71k voters are registered here; 52,375 voted in 2024.

White
96%
97%
Black
0.8%
0.5%
Hispanic
1.6%
1.2%
Asian
0.4%
0.3%
American Indian
0.7%
0.6%
Other
0.9%
0.6%
Registered (2024)Voted (2024)
Voter race and ethnicity are self-reported at registration; voters without a designation (4% here) are excluded from the voted-side shares. Source: NCSBE voter file, 2024.

How this seat has moved

Actual result (solid)MRPI composite (dashed)Shaded = midterm
Hollow points are estimates, not measured results: 2022 (100% estimated) modeled - no contested legislative race covered enough of this ground to measure, so most of the value is estimated from statewide races on the same ballot. See Methodology.

How far this district swings

Across these cycles the Democratic share of the two-party vote here has ranged from 25% to 27%.

Precinct detail

44 precincts.

About this seat

HD-120 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+47.4. Districts this far from even are not competitive in a typical cycle - the outcome tracks the district’s underlying partisanship rather than individual campaigns. Republicans have gained 3.0 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 5.9 points their way.

Campaign money

Follow the money ›
Brown (D) $10K cash$58K cash Gillespie (R)
Gillespie holds 6.0x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Brown $21K / Gillespie $52K.
Actual legislative results, observed except where marked · NCSBE 2018–2024 · boundaries: Redistricting Data Hub (redistrictingdatahub.org) · demographics: Census ACS 2020–2024 · voter file: NCSBE
Data as of October 29, 2026 · campaign finance last refreshed August 20, 2026
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