N.C. House District 14 contains the western border and southwestern border of Mecklenburg County. It has no incumbent, as Democrat Jeff Jackson is running for attorney general after the General Assembly changed the district’s boundaries. The race pits Republican Tim Moore, the speaker of the N.C. House, against Democrat Pam Genant, a former nurse and Army officer. District 14 is composed of western Mecklenburg County and Gaston, Cleveland, Rutherford and Burke Counties, and part of Polk County. Common Cause NC believes it skews Republican by 16 percentage points. According to the NC Legislature website, voter registrations in the district split as follows: 29% Democrat, 35% Republican, 36% unaffiliated.
Genant is a former nurse and Army officer who served during the Gulf War. On her website, she talks about the importance of family farms, taxing billionaires, expanding health care coverage and supporting a strong national defense. In an email to The Ledger, she says that though gerrymandering created “a district created by and for Tim Moore to divide us,” she would like to “fight to give everyone a shot at the American dream.” She is a resident of Burke County (in the Hickory area, northwest of Mecklenburg County) and was the chair of the Burke County Democratic Party for six years. She is the mother of two grown sons and ran against incumbent Patrick McHenry in 2022 for the District 10 house seat (she won 27% of that vote). (Age 57)
Moore has been in the N.C. House for 11 terms and has been speaker since 2015. He currently represents Cleveland and Rutherford counties, west of Charlotte. He says that during his tenure as speaker, state budgets have increased teacher pay and given parents increased options (e.g. charter schools) and that the N.C. economy is “expanding rapidly” after tax cuts. He has recently sponsored legislation to support term limits for Congress and increase penalties for rioting. Moore also led the legislature’s supermajority to approve a 12-week abortion ban in N.C.. Among the 70+ N.C. House Republicans, he ranks 9th in most frequently voting with the majority. He received his B.A. from UNC Chapel Hill and his JD from Oklahoma City University School of Law. He has a private law practice in Kings Mountain. (Age 53)
This candidate information was produced by the Charlotte Ledger and is reprinted here with permission.