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Senate District 3

Lenoir, Beaufort & Craven counties · 2026
Likely R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+16.9
runs 15.2 pts more Republican than NC overall · stable across recent cycles
2024 result
R+20.0
won by Brinson (R)
Charles Dudley
Democrat · Candidate
  • Charles Dudley is a retired U.S. Marine and the senior pastor of New Beginnings Ministry of Faith in Havelock.
  • He served more than 20 years in the Marine Corps and serves on boards for Habitat for Humanity and the Craven Community College Foundation.
campaign site
Sen. Bob Brinson
Republican · Incumbent
  • Bob Brinson is the Republican state senator for District 3 and a career U.S. Army veteran.
  • He is a West Point graduate who served 28 years in the Army as a helicopter pilot and served on the New Bern Board of Aldermen before his appointment to the state Senate.
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 3, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$57,748
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
23%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
17%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
66%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
5.5%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
9%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: New Bern 36% · Kinston 18% · Washington 12% · Havelock 9% · Chocowinity 4%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 154k voters are registered here; 109,903 voted in 2024.

White
68%
73%
Black
25%
23%
Hispanic
3.0%
2.0%
Asian
1.0%
0.9%
American Indian
0.2%
0.2%
Other
2.3%
1.2%
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 40% to 42%.

Precinct detail

64 precincts.

About this seat

SD-3 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+16.9. 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 ›
Dudley (D) $29K cash$56K cash Brinson (R)
Brinson holds 2.0x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Dudley $22K / Brinson $73K.
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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