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Senate District 23

Orange, Person & Caswell counties · 2026
Likely D
Partisan baseline (2024)
D+31.1
runs 32.8 pts more Democratic than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018
2024 result
D+31.6
won by Meyer (D)
Sen. Jonah Garson
Democrat · Incumbent
  • Jonah Garson is an attorney and the Democratic state senator for District 23, covering Caswell, Orange, and Person counties.
  • He was appointed to the Senate seat in April 2026 and earned his law degree from Columbia Law School in 2014.
campaign site
Laura Pichardo
Republican · Candidate
  • Laura Pichardo is an accounts payable analyst.
  • She earned a bachelor's degree from UNC Greensboro in 2014 and a graduate degree from Winston-Salem State University in 2018.
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 23, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$78,404
NC
▲ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
48%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
14%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
68%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
4.1%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
7%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Chapel Hill 39% · Hillsborough 14% · Roxboro 11% · Carrboro 7% · Mebane 5%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 159k voters are registered here; 121,812 voted in 2024.

White
72%
75%
Black
16%
15%
Hispanic
4.1%
3.3%
Asian
4.0%
3.6%
American Indian
0.2%
0.2%
Other
3.1%
2.5%
Registered (2024)Voted (2024)
Voter race and ethnicity are self-reported at registration; voters without a designation (9% 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 66% to 71%.

Precinct detail

60 precincts.

About this seat

SD-23 is rated Likely D from its 2024 partisan baseline of D+31.1. 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 3.1 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 6.2 points their way.

Campaign money

Follow the money ›
Garson (D) $14K cash$2K cash Pichardo (R)
Garson holds 7.4x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Garson $105K / Pichardo $2K.
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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