RALEIGH – The Associated Press called North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District race for Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Harris late Friday, while state election results remained unofficial.
All The Calls, an independent project that tracks news organizations’ race decisions, recorded the AP call between 4:34 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. EST on Nov. 6. The decision came more than two days after polls closed Tuesday.
Decision Desk HQ had made its own projection for Harris at 4:55 p.m. EST on Nov. 5. Its current race page lists 291,899 votes across the three candidates and shows Harris leading Democrat Colby Watson by 5,179 votes.
The posted totals show Harris with 147,094 votes, or 50.39%, and Watson with 141,915 votes, or 48.62%. The Green Party candidate received 2,890 votes, or 0.99%. The gap between Harris and Watson is about 1.77 percentage points.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections labels its 2026 general election results as unofficial. County boards continue post-election work before canvass, including reviewing provisional, cured absentee and eligible military and overseas ballots. Those processes can change the totals that appeared on election night.
The AP and Decision Desk HQ calls are projections, not certifications by election officials. The state results dashboard reported all precincts statewide as having submitted election-night results, but final totals depend on the canvass process and any lawful additions or removals.
Harris entered the election as the incumbent representing the 8th District. The projected result would return the Republican to the U.S. House for another term, but the outcome of one district does not determine which party will control the chamber.
The new call is a material update from the status of the race earlier in the week, when several North Carolina congressional contests remained unresolved. It establishes a projected winner while preserving the distinction between a news organization’s call and the official election certification process.
Sources
- North Carolina State Board of Elections: 2026 unofficial U.S. House results dashboard
- All The Calls: Associated Press decision in North Carolina’s 8th District
- Decision Desk HQ: North Carolina’s 8th District results and projection
Photo Credit: Official portrait of U.S. Rep. Mark Harris by Ike Hayman/House Creative Services, via Wikimedia Commons and Harris’s official House biography. Public-domain U.S. Congress photograph. Cropped and resized; not an election-night photograph. NCPN logo is a separate brand mark.
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.