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House District 51

Lee & Moore counties · 2026
Likely ROpen seat
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+23.0
runs 21.3 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018
2024 result
R+28.6
won by Sauls (R)
Charles M. Taylor
Republican · Candidate
  • Sanford City Council member who has represented Ward 2 since 2007.
  • A 1991 graduate of Campbell University who has worked in television production for college and professional sports broadcasts since 1988.
April Montgomery
Unaffiliated · Candidate
  • Sanford small business owner who is chief development officer at EIP Storage, an energy storage company, and co-owner of a firm that redevelops historic commercial buildings.
  • A Lee County resident of 22 years, she has chaired the Sanford Area Growth Alliance and the Lee County Environmental Advisory Board.
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 51, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$68,650
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
23%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
16%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
71%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
3.9%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
12%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Sanford 69% · Carthage 12% · Cameron 8% · Vass 5% · Woodlake 2%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 56k voters are registered here; 41,320 voted in 2024.

White
72%
76%
Black
17%
15%
Hispanic
8.1%
6.0%
Asian
0.7%
0.7%
American Indian
0.4%
0.4%
Other
2.2%
1.6%
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
2020 includes an estimated share where old district lines crossed today’s (2020 10% estimated); hover any point for the exact split. See Methodology.

How far this district swings

Across these cycles the Democratic share of the two-party vote here has ranged from 35% to 43%.

Precinct detail

14 precincts.

About this seat

HD-51 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+23.0. 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 3.5 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 7.1 points their way.

Campaign money

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No Democrat on the ballot$8K cash Taylor (R)
Taylor (R) is unopposed by a Democrat and holds $8K cash on hand. Raised this cycle: $90K. No Democrat is on the November ballot here, so no committee reports on that side.
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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