RALEIGH — Rep. Robert Pittenger has won re-election to the U.S House of Representatives District 9 seat that now includes Robeson County.
The victory was part of a statewide conservative swing in Tuesday’s elections, with Republican incumbents largely protecting their positions in the U.S. House and picking up some victories in statewide offices.
Pittenger, a Republican, defeated Democratic challenger Christian Cano with 58.25 percent of votes cast. In Robeson County, however, Cano, a Charlotte businessman, defeated Pittenger by a slight margin of about 3 percent. One Robeson County precinct — in Lumber Bridge — even produced a tie in the race.
Robeson County had been part of the 8th District, represented by Richard Hudson, but was placed in the 9th when a court ordered that the state’s congressional districts be redrawn because two were found to be illegally gerrymandered. The new 9th District includes Union, Anson, Richmond, Scotland, Robeson, and parts of Bladen, Cumberland and Mecklenburg counties.
Pittenger previously served three terms in the state Senate and has represented the 9th District since 2013. He serves on the House Financial Services Committee and on subcommittees for the Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing, of which he is vice chairman; Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit; and Monetary Policy and Trade. He chairs the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.
During the June primary, Pittenger’s opponent Mark Harris won the majority of the votes in Robeson County, with Pittenger winning 23 percent. Statewide, Pittenger held a small lead over Harris, with a .5 percent vote margin triggering a recount that remained in Pittenger’s favor. Cano was unopposed in the primary.
Republican U.S. Rep. George Holding captured a third term in Congress, this time in a redesigned district that contained much of his old eastern Piedmont district, including the Triangle. The Raleigh attorney and former federal prosecutor defeated Democrat John McNeill, a military veteran and law firm and mediation service owner in the 2nd Congressional District. Holding had represented the 13th District since 2013, before North Carolina congressional maps were redrawn in February.
Political newcomer Ted Budd, a gun store owner, defeated Democrat Bruce Davis to become the state’s newest member of Congress in the redrawn 13th District. Davis served as a Guilford County commissioner.
In another radically redrawn congressional district, Democrat Alma Adams won a second term in the U.S. House. Adams defeated Republican Leon Threatt to win the right to represent the new 12th Congressional District that now covers most of Charlotte.
North Carolina’s two other Democratic House incumbents also won re-election in heavily Democratic districts. U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield has won re-election in the 1st District as the current chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. U.S. Rep. David Price won a 15th term in Congress after redistricting consolidated his 4th District from eight central North Carolina counties to three in the Triangle.
Republicans maintained their 10-3 advantage in the state’s House delegation. Among the winners:
— The 7th District returned Rep. David Rouzer to Washington for a second term, defeating Democrat J. Wesley Casteen of Wilmington.
— Republican maverick Walter Jones Jr. is returning to Congress again to represent eastern and coastal North Carolina, as he has for 22 years. The Farmville Republican easily won the 3rd District election over Democrat Ernest Reeves.
— Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry was elected to a seventh term in office in the 10th District. The chief deputy whip in the U.S. House beat Democrat Andy Millard.
— Republican U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx won re-election to Congress representing northwestern North Carolina by defeating Josh Brannon.
— Rep. Mark Walker of Summerfield won his second term Tuesday, defeating beating Pete Glidewell in the 6th District covering several counties in the Triad and Sandhills regions.
— Rep. Richard Hudson of Concord won a third term in Congress representing the 8th District, which stretches from Salisbury to points east and south to Fort Bragg and Fayetteville.
