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Senate District 5

Pitt & Edgecombe counties · 2026
Likely D
Partisan baseline (2024)
D+12.5
runs 14.2 pts more Democratic than NC overall · stable across recent cycles
2024 result
D+10.2
won by Smith (D)
Sen. Kandie D. Smith
Democrat · Incumbent
  • State Senator for District 5, representing Edgecombe and Pitt counties, and a former mayor of Greenville.
  • Served two terms in the North Carolina House from 2019 to 2023 before joining the Senate in January 2023.
campaign site
Henry Hostetler
Republican · Candidate
  • Greenville businessman who owned and operated Baywood Racquet Club after 13 years with the City of Greenville's recreation and parks department.
  • Past president of the North Carolina Tennis Association and a 2019 inductee of the NC Tennis Hall of Fame.
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 5, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$56,291
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
30%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
20%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
53%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
8.0%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
10%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Greenville 49% · Winterville 13% · Rocky Mount 9% · Tarboro 8% · Ayden 5%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 165k voters are registered here; 111,723 voted in 2024.

White
53%
58%
Black
40%
37%
Hispanic
3.3%
2.5%
Asian
0.8%
0.7%
American Indian
0.2%
0.2%
Other
2.8%
1.6%
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 52% to 58%.

Precinct detail

61 precincts.

About this seat

SD-5 is rated Likely D from its 2024 partisan baseline of D+12.5. 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

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Smith (D) $30K cash$15K cash Hostetler (R)
Smith holds 2.0x the cash on hand. Raised this cycle: Smith $44K / Hostetler $14K.
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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