RALEIGH – The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District to its 2026 target list Friday, elevating a Republican-held seat as the party expands its offensive map in the final month before the Nov. 3 election.
The DCCC said NC-13 is one of eight newly added districts in its “Districts in Play” program. The committee framed the contest around first-term Republican Rep. Brad Knott and Democratic challenger Paul Barringer. The State Board of Elections’ current general-election candidate list also includes Libertarian Steven Swinton.
The designation is a political signal, not a spending commitment. The Washington Post reported that inclusion on the list does not mean the DCCC will necessarily spend money in the race, but it can signal to donors and allied groups that the committee considers the district worth attention.
Roll Call reported that the expanded list now includes 66 districts, nearly twice the number the DCCC had at the end of the 2024 election cycle. NC-13 is the only North Carolina district among the eight additions announced Friday.
The district remains challenging territory for Democrats. Roll Call reported that President Donald Trump carried it by 16 percentage points in 2024 and that Inside Elections rates the race Solid Republican. The DCCC, in its own release, emphasized a different result from the same election, saying Democratic Gov. Josh Stein carried the district by four points.
The DCCC framed the addition as evidence that Democrats see a wider path to a House majority. Republicans have previously dismissed the committee’s expanding target list as an inaccurate measure of which races are truly competitive, according to Roll Call.
Knott was elected to Congress in 2024 and represents a district that includes parts of Wake, Johnston, Lee, Harnett, Franklin, Caswell, Person and Granville counties. Barringer is a lawyer and Lee County resident running as the Democratic nominee.
Adding NC-13 to the target list does not change the ballot, guarantee outside spending or establish that the race has become competitive. It does, however, place another North Carolina congressional contest on a national party committee’s offensive map as campaigns enter the final weeks.
Sources
- DCCC: NC-13 added to 2026 Districts in Play
- The Washington Post: Democrats expand House battleground map
- Roll Call: DCCC adds eight districts to target list
Photo Credit: House Creative Services via Wikimedia Commons, public domain as a work of the U.S. Congress. Official portrait of Rep. Brad Knott, Jan. 2, 2025. Cropped and resized, then combined with the unchanged NCPN footer and logo.
Editor’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.