Four representatives from North Carolina who voted against certifying President Biden’s 2020 electoral victory still serve in the House and are running for reelection in 2024. Although the state’s House delegation has been evenly split in recent years, with seven Democrats and seven Republicans, now that North Carolina’s Republican-controlled General Assembly has redrawn voting maps, three congressional districts are expected to flip (from Democrats to Republicans) in the November election. If that happens, when Congress convenes in January 2025 North Carolina will be represented by 10 Republicans and four Democrats in the House, along with its two sitting Republicans in the Senate.
The following Republican candidates are among the election deniers running to represent North Carolina in the House:
- Laurie Buckhout | House (NC–1)
Having recently (semi) relocated to the state in order to run for Congress, Laurie Buckhout has Trump’s full endorsement. Democrats warn that she is “an anti-abortion extremist, insurrection apologist, and transplant opportunist only looking out for herself.” In addition to dismissing Trump’s felonies as proof that the justice system has been “weaponized” against him, Buckhout has promoted false claims of election interference on social media. In November 2023, she tweeted, “As a cyber subject matter expert, I advise you ABSOLUTELY should question the integrity of voting processes. Stay vigilant. Ballot integrity is the bedrock of our representative Republic!” In responding to a tweet from key Trump ally Mike Flynn promoting hand counting of ballots, she wrote: “Now THIS is election integrity. I ran a cyber and electronic warfare company, and any time a processor is involved, with the ability to download or upload data, fraud is possible.” - Alan Swain | House (NC–2)
Alan Swain, a retired Army colonel and former defense industry executive, was one of the Republican plaintiffs in Moore v. Circosta, a lawsuit calling for an injunction against the extension of the absentee ballot deadline put into place as a pandemic measure in North Carolina during the 2020 election. In the emergency application for the injunction, one of the claims made is that the “respondents are purposefully allowing otherwise unlawful votes to be counted, thereby diluting North Carolina voters’ lawful votes.” ProPublica also reports that as chair of the Wake County GOP, Swain formed an “election integrity committee” that lobbied lawmakers to restrict voting and audit the 2020 results. - Greg Murphy | House (NC–3)
Representative Greg Murphy has served in the House since 2019 and won reelection in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement. After the 2020 presidential election, he signed a letter from congressional Republicans to the attorney general asking the Justice Department to investigate “a number of anomalies, statistical improbabilities and accusations of fraud” during the voting process and also signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to overturn the election results in four swing states. In January 2021, Murphy objected to certifying President Biden’s win of the election, and voted against both impeaching Trump for inciting the insurrection and establishing a special House committee to investigate it. A year after the attack on the Capitol, he continued to spread misinformation, claiming that Antifa was responsible for the violence that day. In January 2022, Murphy also released a statement blaming Democrats for exploiting the insurrection for political gain to “distract the American people from the complete and total failure of the Biden Administration.” - Virginia Foxx | House (NC–5)
Representative Virginia Foxx has served in the House since 2005, representing a safely Republican district and winning reelection in recent years with Trump’s endorsement. In January 2021, she objected to certifying President Biden’s win of the 2020 election, and also voted against both impeaching Trump for inciting the insurrection and establishing a special House committee to investigate it. Foxx signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to overturn the election results in four swing states. In October 2023, the then-80-year-old lawmaker yelled “shut up” at an ABC News reporter attempting to ask then-House Speaker nominee Mike Johnson (R–LA) about his involvement in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. - David Rouzer | House (NC–7)
Representative David Rouzer has served in the House since 2015 and won reelection in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement. After the 2020 presidential election, he signed a letter from congressional Republicans to the attorney general asking the Justice Department to investigate possible fraud and signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to overturn the election results in four swing states. In January 2021, Rouzer objected to certifying President Biden’s win of the 2020 election, and also voted against both impeaching Trump for inciting the insurrection and establishing a special House committee to investigate it. - Mark Harris | House (NC–8)
In 2018, Mark Harris ran for Congress in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. Though initial tallies showed him winning, the results were not certified due to allegations of ballot harvesting made by an employee of his campaign. The results were dismissed in 2019 and a new election was held, but Harris did not run. In a video announcing his bid for the 8th Congressional District seat in 2024, he said, “In 2020, Democrats stole the election from President Trump. The year before, they did it to me.” He also claimed, “And just like President Trump, it wasn’t until after they got what they wanted that the truth would come out and I was vindicated.” - Richard Hudson | House (NC–9)
Representative Richard Hudson has served in the House since 2013 and won reelection in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement. After the 2020 presidential election, he signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to overturn the election results in four swing states. In January 2021, Hudson objected to certifying President Biden’s win of the 2020 election, and also voted against both impeaching Trump for inciting the insurrection and establishing a special House committee to investigate it.