RALEIGH, N.C. — Eastern North Carolina will send a Democrat to Congress for the first time in three decades after Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy conceded the 3rd District race to former state House member Raymond Smith.
Smith holds a 293-vote edge in unofficial State Board of Elections returns, 118,488 votes to 118,195, or 49.43% to 49.31%. Libertarian Daniel Cavender drew 3,007 votes. Murphy was ahead by 233 votes on election night, but provisional ballots and cured absentee ballots counted this week moved the race to Smith.
County boards of elections hold their official canvasses Friday, Nov. 13, the step that turns the unofficial count into certified local results. The gap sits inside the 1% margin that would let the trailing candidate ask for a recount, but Murphy’s Wednesday statement congratulating Smith signals he will not seek one.
Murphy, a Greenville physician who served three terms, won the seat in a 2019 special election, and Republicans had held it since 1995. In his statement he thanked his staff, pointed to his work for veterans and farmers and his fights with insurers, and said he was disappointed not to keep serving the region.
The flip reshapes the delegation. Adding the 3rd District puts Democrats in position to control 11 of the 14 U.S. House seats from the state.
The outcome also undercuts the 2025 redistricting plan. The General Assembly redrew the 3rd and 1st districts last year to help Republicans gain a seat, shifting GOP-leaning precincts into the 1st and moving Wayne, Wilson, Greene and Lenoir counties into the 3rd.
Smith, a U.S. Army veteran from Goldsboro, takes office in January. He has named agriculture, military bases and veterans services, health care access east of Interstate 95 and household costs as his early priorities, and he said he backs redistricting reform.
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