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Senate District 46

Burke, Buncombe & McDowell counties · 2026

Likely R

Partisan baseline (2024)

R+29.6

runs 27.9 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018

2024 result

R+30.4

won by Daniel (R)

Kyle Whisnant

Democrat · Candidate

Coin dealer from Morganton who has served as a precinct chair in the Burke County Democratic Party.

campaign site

Sen. Warren Daniel

Republican · Incumbent

State senator for District 46 and an attorney who has practiced at the Daniel Law Firm since 2000.
A West Point graduate commissioned in the Army field artillery, he has served in the state Senate since January 2013.

campaign site

Election night results

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Live returns and a precinct map for this race on Nov. 3.

Early voting

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Ballots cast so far in this district, in person and by mail. Updated every morning.

Who lives here

The people of Senate District 46, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income

$61,412

▼ vs NC · NC $75k

Bachelor's degree or higher

25%

▼ vs NC · NC 36%

Poverty rate

14%

▲ vs NC · NC 13%

Homeownership

75%

▲ vs NC · NC 67%

Unemployment

4.0%

▼ vs NC · NC 4.7%

Uninsured rate

11%

▲ vs NC · NC 10%

Top communities: Morganton 24% · Marion 14% · Black Mountain 8% · Leicester 7% · Candler 6%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 144k voters are registered here; 108,712 voted in 2024.

White

91%

93%

Black

3.6%

3.1%

Hispanic

2.5%

1.8%

Asian

0.9%

0.6%

American Indian

0.2%

Other

1.6%

1.1%

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

How far this district swings

Across these cycles the Democratic share of the two-party vote here has ranged from 35% to 40%.

Precinct detail

68 precincts.

About this seat

SD-46 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+29.6. 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 3.7 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 7.4 points their way.

Campaign money

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Whisnant (D) $0 cash$72K cash Daniel (R)

Daniel has a committee on file; Whisnant has no machine-readable figures (nothing filed yet, or filed on paper). Raised this cycle: Whisnant $0 / Daniel $103K.

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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