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House District 5

Hertford, Pasquotank, Gates & Camden counties · 2026
Lean R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+4.8
runs 3.1 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018
2024 result
R+8.4
won by Ward (R)
Sam Davis III
Democrat · Challenger
  • At-large Pasquotank County Commissioner and real estate broker
  • Longtime Elizabeth City-area local official
campaign site
Rep. Bill Ward
Republican · Incumbent
  • HD-5 incumbent since 2023
  • Retired law enforcement officer and veteran from Pasquotank County
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 5, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$62,336
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
23%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
13%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
71%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
5.8%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
9%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Elizabeth City 50% · Ahoskie 10% · Camden 7% · Murfreesboro 5% · South Mills 5%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 64k voters are registered here; 42,341 voted in 2024.

White
59%
62%
Black
37%
35%
Hispanic
1.3%
0.9%
Asian
0.4%
0.4%
American Indian
0.3%
0.3%
Other
2.3%
1.4%
Registered (2024)Voted (2024)
Voter race and ethnicity are self-reported at registration; voters without a designation (7% 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 46% to 56%.

Precinct detail

31 precincts.

About this seat

HD-5 is rated Lean R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+4.8. Districts in this range are competitive when candidates, campaigns and the year’s statewide environment line up against the district’s modest partisan tilt. Republicans have gained 5.5 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 10.9 points their way.

Campaign money

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Davis (D) $0 cash$37K cash Ward (R)
Ward has a committee on file; Davis has no machine-readable figures (nothing filed yet, or filed on paper). Raised this cycle: Davis $0 / Ward $16K.
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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