LUMBERTON — Robeson County Republicans on Tuesday can select a new congressman and all voters can make their picks for the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Polls for the primary open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.
The election was rescheduled from March after a court ordered that the state’s congressional district be redrawn because two were found to be illegally gerrymandered. Robeson County, which had been included in the 7th and 8th Districts, is now in the 9th District, represented by Republican Robert Pittenger.
Early voting suggests a slow day at the polls, with only 130 people having cat ballots by mid-afternoon on Friday.
Pittenger will face two challengers in Tuesday’s Republican primary. They are Mark Harris, the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Charlotte, and Todd Johnson, an insurance agent and former Union County commissioner. The winner will face Democratic candidate Christian Cano, a Charlotte businessman who has no primary opponent, in November.
Pittenger previously served three terms in the state Senate and has represented the 9th District since 2013.
Pittenger’s priorities if re-elected include passing a balanced budget, reducing the size of government, “returning power to the states ” and blocking “President Obama from ordering monarchical decrees.”
“On the Financial Services Committee I work every day to reduce regulations on community banks and credit unions to enable them to make loans to small businesses,” he said. “We need an opportunity economy where everyone is able to succeed.”
He also serves as vice chairman of the Task Force to Investigate Financing and is a member of the steering committee of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
Pittenger in May visited Robeson County and met with officials from the Lumbee Tribe and The University of North Carolina at Pembroke as well as local economic developers, farmers and small business owners.
“My role in Congress is to assist the great leadership of Robeson to bring the county economic growth,” he said. “Endorsed by NRA, National Federation of Independent Business, national and state Right to Life groups, and a ‘Taxpayers Friend’ award from the American Conservative Union, I will represent Robeson County values while protecting the unborn, the taxpayer, the small business owner, and our Second Amendment right to bear arms.”
Johnson pitched himself as the most relatable candidate for Robeson County voters and a political outsider “fed up” with Washington. Born in Anson County, Johnson operates a family-owned insurance business with offices in five 9th District counties, including Scotland. He also served as the GOP chair for the 8th Congressional District when it included Robeson.
“I know the people of this district and I grew up in this district,” he said.
He held an at-large seat as a Union County commissioner from 2010 to 2014, representing the county’s agricultural areas as well as Charlotte suburbs.
“So I represented the farmer in the eastern part of the county and the downtown Charlotte banker in the western part of the county,” he said. “… I’m the only candidate in this race that has a 100 percent conservative voting record and I’m the only candidate in this race that’s not from Charlotte.”
If elected, Johnson said his priorities would be national security and the economy. He favors a thorough immigration vetting process “to make sure the people who are coming here are coming for the right reasons.” He said he is pro-life, pro-gun and, referring to the much-discussed House Bill 2, believes people should use restrooms corresponding to their gender at birth.
According to Johnson, Union County’s unemployment rate went from about 11 percent to 4.2 percent during his four years as a commissioner. The county also lowered its tax rate in that time.
“In addition we got government out of the lives of small businesses,” he said. “It worked in Union County and it can work in Robeson County, Bladen County, Scotland County.”
Harris also sees himself an “outsider” candidate. He has been senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Charlotte for 28 years and previously worked as president of the the NC Baptist Convention. He helped rally the votes that passed Amendment One, which outlawed same-sex marriage in North Carolina in 2012, and says he was a “force” against a Charlotte ordinance that allowed transgender people to use the bathrooms matching their gender identity and prompted the passage of House Bill 2.
He said he wouldn’t compromise his values for support in Washington.
“I’m going not to be a show horse, but to be a workhorse and to what we need to do to get our nation back on track,” he said, speaking to supporters and party leaders at the Robeson County Board of Elections last week.
Harris said he is candidate with equally strong domestic, foreign and social agendas.
“We want to deal with the $19 trillion in debt and $120 trillion in unfunded liabilities. We’re not going to have the EPA and the IRS running amok doing their own thing,” he said. “I think we’ve got to deal with Obamacare, it’s like the boot on the neck of our small businesses across this country and the costs continue to go up.”
Harris is hoping to tap into the mood for political change that seems to be sweeping the nation.
“I think we’re concerned that we have not been able to see the recovery that we expected to see in this country. I think there’s a great concern that the nation has lost some of its positioning in the world that we once had,” he said.
All ballots include the non-partisan race for an associate justice seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Candidates include: Robert H. “Bob” Edmunds, the incumbent; Michael R. “Mike” Morgan; Daniel Robertson; and Sabra Jean Faires.
To find your polling site, visit vt.ncsbe.gov/pollingplace_search.
Voters will be asked to present a photo ID at the polls. Exceptions to the photo ID rule include voters who have a “reasonable impediment” to obtaining an acceptable ID, those with a religious objection to being photographed, or those who are victims of a natural disaster.
Acceptable forms of photo ID include a North Carolina driver’s license or state Division of Motor Vehicles issued ID card; U.S. passport or passport card; military ID card or veterans affairs ID card; and certain tribal enrollment cards with expiration dates, including for the Lumbee Tribe.
