Majority Rising NC
2026 NC Legislative Dashboard
Back to dashboard / House / HD-3

House District 3

Craven County · 2026
Likely R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+18.2
runs 16.6 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Democrats since 2018
2024 result
R+23.4
won by Tyson (R)
Diannia Bright
Democrat · Candidate
  • Special education teacher of more than 22 years, named Lenoir County Public Schools Special Education Teacher of the Year for 2021-2022.
  • Serves as a commissioner in Dover, North Carolina, per her campaign site.
campaign site
Rep. Steve Tyson
Republican · Incumbent
  • Realtor and general contractor from Craven County who serves as House Deputy Majority Leader.
  • U.S. Army veteran (1973-1976), first elected to the House in 2020 and serving his third term.
campaign site

Election night results

Follow this race ›

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

Median household income
$66,211
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
28%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
13%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
71%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
4.0%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
7%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: New Bern 80% · Vanceboro 7% · Havelock 6% · Cove City 3% · Dover 2%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 69k voters are registered here; 49,530 voted in 2024.

White
75%
79%
Black
18%
16%
Hispanic
2.9%
2.0%
Asian
1.7%
1.5%
American Indian
0.2%
0.2%
Other
2.3%
1.4%
Registered (2024)Voted (2024)
Voter race and ethnicity are self-reported at registration; voters without a designation (6% 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 (97% 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 38% to 42%.

Precinct detail

20 precincts.

About this seat

HD-3 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+18.2. Districts this far from even are not competitive in a typical cycle - the outcome tracks the district’s underlying partisanship rather than individual campaigns. Democrats have gained 1.4 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 2.7 points their way.

Campaign money

Follow the money ›
Bright (D) $0 cash$25K cash Tyson (R)
Tyson has a committee on file; Bright has no machine-readable figures (nothing filed yet, or filed on paper). Raised this cycle: Bright $0 / Tyson $133K.
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
Report an error