U.S. Rep. Tim Moore became the latest fixture of North Carolina politics to lose a bid for reelection on Tuesday, losing to a Democratic political newcomer in a district that many had considered safe for Republicans.
Before serving one term in Congress, Moore was the Speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives for five terms.
With every precinct counted, political newcomer Lakesha Womack led Moore by 6,415 votes. Womack is an ordained minister and is the chief strategy officer for Aspire Community Capital, a community development financial institution.
Moore won the district in 2024 by about 16 percentage points.
This year, Moore won the majority of the vote in the five western-most counties in the district, running along the South Carolina border from Polk to Gaston counties and up to Burke County. But he lost by effectively a two-to-one margin in the district's 28 Mecklenburg County precincts.
Speaking in front of a conference in Raleigh on the first day of early voting this year, Moore said, "I feel pretty comfortable with all that. I'm in a seat that's not considered competitive, but I'm running a race as if I was."
Moore went on to say that he'd been knocking on doors and talking to voters "even though I probably wouldn't have to if I didn't want to."
Moore's defeat comes the same year that U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who he succeeded as Speaker, chose to not seek reelection and Sen. Phil Berger, who led the Senate throughout both their speakerships, lost in a primary.
During his time as speaker, Moore oversaw aggressive partisan redrawing of the state's Congressional maps to give GOP lawmakers an advantage, including helping in 2024 to draw the district that he would go on to represent.
He also famously called for an unannounced override of Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of the 2019 North Carolina state budget on September 11, when many Democratic lawmakers were not in the chamber because they were either at 9/11 commemoration ceremonies or in other meetings.
Election results are unofficial until the statewide canvass on Friday, Nov. 13.
