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House District 23

Edgecombe, Bertie & Martin counties · 2026
Likely DOpen seat
Partisan baseline (2024)
D+16.5
runs 18.2 pts more Democratic than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018
2024 result
D+12.8
won by Willingham (D)
Patricia Smith
Democrat · Candidate
  • Entrepreneur.
  • Graduated from Williamston High School.
campaign site
Brent Roberson
Republican · Candidate
  • Business owner born in Williamston.
  • Earned a bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University in 1995.

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 23, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$50,142
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
18%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
20%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
65%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
7.4%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
10%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Rocky Mount 23% · Tarboro 20% · Williamston 16% · Windsor 9% · Pinetops 4%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 66k voters are registered here; 45,648 voted in 2024.

White
43%
48%
Black
54%
50%
Hispanic
1.7%
1.1%
Asian
0.2%
0.2%
American Indian
0.2%
0.1%
Other
1.6%
0.7%
Registered (2024)Voted (2024)
Voter race and ethnicity are self-reported at registration; voters without a designation (9% 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

How far this district swings

Across these cycles the Democratic share of the two-party vote here has ranged from 54% to 61%.

Precinct detail

42 precincts.

About this seat

HD-23 is rated Likely D from its 2024 partisan baseline of D+16.5. 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 2.3 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 4.5 points their way.

Campaign money

Follow the money ›
Smith (D) $939 cash$31 cash Roberson (R)
Smith holds 30.1x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Smith $13K / Roberson $0.
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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