GREENVILLE, N.C. — Another of North Carolina’s congressional races has changed hands in the provisional ballot count. Democrat Raymond Smith, an Army veteran, Goldsboro educator and former state House member, finished Tuesday 293 votes ahead of Republican Rep. Greg Murphy of Greenville in the 3rd Congressional District.
With provisional ballots reported from all nine counties in the district, unofficial State Board of Elections figures show Smith at 118,488 votes and Murphy at 118,195. A Libertarian candidate drew 3,007. Murphy had gone into the count with a 233-vote edge from election night, 117,583 to 117,350.
Pitt County, Murphy’s home county, made the difference. Of 1,119 provisional ballots cast there, Smith collected 507 counted votes to 211 for Murphy, a net gain of 296. Across all of Pitt, Smith finished with 36,583 votes and Murphy with 25,879. Counties in the eastern part of the district, including Lenoir, Onslow and Greene, also finished their provisional counts Tuesday night.
The result cuts against the map Republican legislators drew. Lawmakers shifted heavily Democratic precincts in northern Pitt County into the 3rd District to help Republicans in the neighboring 1st District, but Democratic Rep. Don Davis held the 1st anyway, beating his challenger 157,489 to 146,700 after provisional ballots widened his lead.
The margin is inside the 1 percent threshold that would let Murphy ask for a recount. Results become official when county boards hold their canvass on Friday, and the candidates will decide on next steps after that. Murphy, a four-term member who first won a 2019 special election, raised more than $2.8 million for the race, compared with about $366,000 for Smith.
The race is part of a statewide swing. Republicans held 10 of North Carolina’s 14 U.S. House seats going into the election and could be left with three, and in the 5th District Democrat Chuck Hubbard leads Rep. Virginia Foxx by 325 votes. The state elections board let counties count provisional and absentee ballots ahead of the canvass this year, so results are being posted statewide before Friday.
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