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House District 96

Catawba County · 2026
Likely R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+26.0
runs 24.3 pts more Republican than NC overall · stable across recent cycles
2024 result
R+28.4
won by Adams (R)
Park Inglefield
Democrat · Candidate
  • North Carolina state director for the Young People's Alliance, a nonprofit that organizes young people on policy advocacy.
  • Born in Statesville and raised in Hickory, he studied political science at Northeastern University.
campaign site
Rep. Jay Adams
Republican · Incumbent
  • Commercial real estate broker representing Catawba County in the NC House.
  • Has served in the NC House since 2015 and is in his sixth term.
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 96, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$63,357
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
30%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
15%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
65%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
3.3%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
11%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Hickory 78% · Conover 20% · Newton 3% · Vale 0% · Hildebran 0%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 63k voters are registered here; 45,683 voted in 2024.

White
78%
84%
Black
10%
8.3%
Hispanic
6.1%
4.2%
Asian
2.6%
1.8%
American Indian
0.1%
0.1%
Other
2.6%
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
Hollow points are estimates, not measured results: 2022 (100% 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 36% to 40%.

Precinct detail

23 precincts.

About this seat

HD-96 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+26.0. Districts this far from even are not competitive in a typical cycle - the outcome tracks the district’s underlying partisanship rather than individual campaigns. Its baseline has been essentially stable since 2018.

Campaign money

Follow the money ›
Inglefield (D) $12K cash$51K cash Adams (R)
Adams holds 4.4x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Inglefield $23K / Adams $50K.
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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