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House District 81

Davidson County · 2026
Likely R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+41.2
runs 39.6 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Democrats since 2018
2024 result
R+43.8
won by Potts (R)
Dylan R. Tucker
Democrat · Candidate
  • Bio unavailable
campaign site
Rep. Larry W. Potts
Republican · Incumbent
  • Real estate investor and building contractor.
  • Serving his fifth term in the state House after U.S. Air Force service from 1966 to 1970.
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 81, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$62,169
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
21%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
13%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
74%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
4.0%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
9%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Lexington 80% · Clemmons 8% · Winston-Salem 7% · Linwood 5%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 62k voters are registered here; 48,029 voted in 2024.

White
84%
87%
Black
10%
8.8%
Hispanic
3.2%
2.2%
Asian
0.8%
0.6%
American Indian
0.2%
0.2%
Other
1.7%
1.0%
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 26% to 28%.

Precinct detail

22 precincts.

About this seat

HD-81 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+41.2. 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 2.8 points their way.

Campaign money

Follow the money ›
Tucker (D) $-18 cash$129K cash Potts (R)
Potts holds -7256.7x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Tucker $550 / Potts $109K.
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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