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Senate District 47

Watauga, Avery, Ashe, Madison, Yancey, Mitchell, Haywood, Caldwell & Alleghany counties · 2026
Likely R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+26.4
runs 24.7 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018
2024 result
R+28.2
won by Hise (R)
Frank Patton Hughes III
Democrat · Candidate
  • Public school world history teacher in McDowell County who chairs the Avery County Democratic Party.
  • An Appalachian State University graduate.
campaign site
Sen. Ralph Hise
Republican · Incumbent
  • State senator for District 47 whose professional experience includes serving on the faculty of Mayland Community College in Spruce Pine.
  • Has served in the state Senate since January 2011 and is the Senate's deputy president pro tempore.
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 47, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$57,319
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
74%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
5.4%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
10%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Boone 18% · Lenoir 9% · Burnsville 8% · Marshall 5% · Clyde 5%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 163k voters are registered here; 123,417 voted in 2024.

White
95%
96%
Black
1.5%
1.2%
Hispanic
2.1%
1.6%
Asian
0.4%
0.4%
American Indian
0.1%
0.1%
Other
1.3%
0.8%
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

106 precincts.

About this seat

SD-47 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+26.4. 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 3.2 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 6.3 points their way.

Campaign money

Follow the money ›
Hughes (D) $11K cash$255K cash Hise (R)
Hise holds 24.2x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Hughes $8K / Hise $247K.
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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