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House District 87

Caldwell & Watauga counties · 2026
Likely R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+47.5
runs 45.8 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018
2024 result
R+50.8
won by Hall (R)
Iris Bender
Democrat · Candidate
  • Businesswoman and small business owner who is a longtime Lenoir resident.
campaign site
Rep. Destin Hall
Republican · Incumbent
  • Attorney serving as Speaker of the NC House.
  • He is serving his fifth term representing Caldwell and Watauga counties.
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 87, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$57,427
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
22%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
14%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
74%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
5.1%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
10%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Lenoir 52% · Granite Falls 23% · Hudson 14% · Boone 5% · Hickory 3%

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; 46,619 voted in 2024.

White
91%
93%
Black
4.7%
4.0%
Hispanic
2.4%
1.7%
Asian
0.4%
0.3%
American Indian
0.1%
0.1%
Other
1.2%
0.8%
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 24% to 30%.

Precinct detail

16 precincts.

About this seat

HD-87 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+47.5. 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 2.7 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 5.4 points their way.

Campaign money

Follow the money ›
Bender (D) $6K cash$166K cash Hall (R)
Hall holds 26.0x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Bender $10K / Hall $1.9M.
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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