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House District 80

Davidson County · 2026
Likely R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+48.3
runs 46.6 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Democrats since 2018
2024 result
R+51.4
won by Watford (R)
JacQuez Johnson
Democrat · Candidate
  • Teacher and Thomasville City Council member first elected in 2023.
  • He graduated from Appalachian State University in 2023.
campaign site
Rep. Sam Watford
Republican · Incumbent
  • Utility contractor.
  • Serving his fifth term representing Davidson County in the state House.
campaign site

Election night results

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Live returns and a precinct map for this race on Nov. 3.

Early voting

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Ballots cast so far in this district, in person and by mail. Updated every morning.

Who lives here

The people of House District 80, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$67,998
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
23%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
12%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
75%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
4.2%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
9%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Thomasville 48% · Winston-Salem 18% · High Point 13% · Lexington 12% · Denton 9%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 60k voters are registered here; 45,578 voted in 2024.

White
84%
88%
Black
9.7%
8.3%
Hispanic
3.5%
2.3%
Asian
0.8%
0.6%
American Indian
0.2%
0.2%
Other
1.6%
1.0%
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

How far this district swings

Across these cycles the Democratic share of the two-party vote here has ranged from 22% to 25%.

Precinct detail

21 precincts.

About this seat

HD-80 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+48.3. 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 1.2 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 2.4 points their way.

Campaign money

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Johnson (D) $0 cash$22K cash Watford (R)
Watford has a committee on file; Johnson has no machine-readable figures (nothing filed yet, or filed on paper). Raised this cycle: Johnson $0 / Watford $13K.
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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