Majority Rising NC
2026 NC Legislative Dashboard
Back to dashboard / House / HD-7

House District 7

Franklin & Vance counties · 2026
Lean ROpen seat
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+9.9
runs 8.2 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018
2024 result
R+13.4
won by Winslow (R)
Mark Speed
Democrat · Candidate
  • Franklin County Commissioner since 2017
  • Democratic nominee for the open seat Rep. Matthew Winslow is vacating
campaign site
Cory Thornton
Republican · Candidate
  • Louisburg real estate agent and Marine veteran
  • Running for the open seat Rep. Matthew Winslow is vacating
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 7, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$72,398
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
78%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
5.2%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
10%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Louisburg 26% · Youngsville 24% · Franklinton 16% · Henderson 14% · Zebulon 7%

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; 50,596 voted in 2024.

White
65%
69%
Black
27%
26%
Hispanic
4.5%
3.5%
Asian
0.6%
0.6%
American Indian
0.3%
0.2%
Other
2.0%
1.4%
Registered (2024)Voted (2024)
Voter race and ethnicity are self-reported at registration; voters without a designation (8% 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 (85% 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 43% to 47%.

Precinct detail

22 precincts.

About this seat

HD-7 is rated Lean R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+9.9. 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 1.6 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 3.2 points their way.

Campaign money

Follow the money ›
Speed (D) $11K cash$45K cash Thornton (R)
Thornton holds 3.9x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Speed $35K / Thornton $62K.
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