N.C. House District 109 is in the southeastern section of Gaston County. According to the N.C. Board of Elections site, it is 28% Democrat, 37% Republican and 34% unaffiliated. Incumbent Republican Donnie Loftis has served in the house for just over one term. Loftis won his last general election in 2022 by a margin of 22 percentage points.
Loftis is the incumbent house member and former Gaston County commissioner. His positions are that he is pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-school choice, pro-cutting taxes and pro-training workforce. He is a military veteran who says he served 11 months on the ground in Iraq and is a born-again Christian and resident of Gastonia. He posted on Facebook that he attended the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol and was “gassed three times” and later told TV station WRAL that he was “surprised and disappointed to watch others storm the entrance as violence ensued.” He says on his website he is a recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest civilian award. (Age 67)
Morganstern has been a grassroots organizer for the Democratic Party since 2010. Her key areas of interest are to increase job wages, increase teacher salaries, support women's reproductive rights, address the opioid crisis, enable affordable childcare and healthcare, end homelessness. In the past, she has protested to remove confederate monuments and has been critical of Gaston law enforcement. She moved to N.C. from California, where she was an art director and project manager in the movie industry, and volunteered at a free healthcare and homeless clinic. She has a degree from Santa Monica Community College. (Age 69)
This candidate information was produced by the Charlotte Ledger and is reprinted here with permission.