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Senate District 8

Brunswick, Columbus & New Hanover counties · 2026
Likely R
Partisan baseline (2024)
R+17.5
runs 15.8 pts more Republican than NC overall · moving toward Republicans since 2018
2024 result
R+19.8
won by Rabon (R)
Richard (Rick) Combes
Democrat · Candidate
  • Retired chemical engineer who worked at Kraft Foods and later drove for Uber across Columbus, Brunswick, and New Hanover counties.
  • Earned a chemical engineering degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
campaign site
Sen. Bill Rabon
Republican · Incumbent
  • Veterinarian and State Senator for District 8, representing Brunswick, Columbus, and New Hanover counties.
  • Has served in the Senate since 2011 and chairs the Senate Rules and Operations Committee.

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 8, from the Census American Community Survey (2020-2024). The dark tick on each bar marks North Carolina overall.

Median household income
$69,547
NC
▼ vs NC · NC $75k
Bachelor's degree or higher
31%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 36%
Poverty rate
13%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 13%
Homeownership
76%
NC
▲ vs NC · NC 67%
Unemployment
4.6%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 4.7%
Uninsured rate
9%
NC
▼ vs NC · NC 10%
Top communities: Leland 20% · Wilmington 11% · Southport 9% · Whiteville 6% · Bolivia 5%

Who registers vs. who votes

Each group's share of registered voters against its share of those who actually voted in 2024. About 203k voters are registered here; 150,132 voted in 2024.

White
81%
85%
Black
15%
12%
Hispanic
2.0%
1.4%
Asian
0.4%
0.4%
American Indian
0.7%
0.7%
Other
1.6%
0.9%
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 (92% 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

54 precincts.

About this seat

SD-8 is rated Likely R from its 2024 partisan baseline of R+17.5. Districts this far from even are not competitive in a typical cycle - the outcome tracks the district’s underlying partisanship rather than individual campaigns. Republicans have gained 1.3 points of vote share here since 2018, moving the seat’s two-way margin 2.5 points their way.

Campaign money

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Combes (D) $0 cash$95K cash Rabon (R)
Rabon has a committee on file; Combes has no machine-readable figures (nothing filed yet, or filed on paper). Raised this cycle: Combes $0 / Rabon $235K.
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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