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Senate District 2

Carteret, Halifax, Warren, Martin, Hyde, Chowan, Pamlico & Washington counties · 2026
Likely R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+13.7
runs 12.0 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018
2024 result
R+14.8
won by Sanderson (R)
Roy Surrett
Democrat · Candidate
  • Roy Surrett is a retired national security official who spent 38 years in federal service, including as a U.S. Customs officer and later a senior leader at the National Security Agency.
  • He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Wake Forest University in 1985 and has volunteered as a youth sports coach and as a leader in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
campaign site
Sen. Norman Sanderson
Republican · Incumbent
  • Norman Sanderson is the Republican state senator for District 2 and a small business owner who has owned a childcare center for more than 20 years.
  • He has served seven terms in the state Senate and one term in the state House, and earlier worked as a sheriff's deputy.
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 Senate District 2, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$56,843
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
24%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
17%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
70%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
6.2%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
9%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Roanoke Rapids 12% · Newport 11% · Morehead City 8% · Williamston 7% · Beaufort 6%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 158k voters are registered here; 115,754 voted in 2024.

White
68%
72%
Black
28%
25%
Hispanic
1.3%
1.0%
Asian
0.4%
0.4%
American Indian
1.1%
1.1%
Other
1.5%
0.8%
Registered (2024)Voted (2024)
Voter race and ethnicity are self-reported at registration; voters without a designation (6% 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 (61% 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 46%.

Precinct detail

93 precincts.

About this seat

SD-2 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+13.7. 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 2.4 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 4.9 points their way.

Campaign money

Follow the money ›
Surrett (D) $29K cash$25K cash Sanderson (R)
Surrett holds 1.2x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Surrett $26K / Sanderson $22K.
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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