Nine Candidates Ready To Fill 13th Congressional District Seat

Nine candidates are now in the race to represent that controversial 13th district created Thursday by the United States Supreme Court.

Candidates for the 13th Congressional district filed for the seat six months ago, only to see the election put on hold because of Utah's court challenge over the Census count.

The question now is who will represent North Carolina's new 13th district. It includes parts of Raleigh and Wake County, picks up northern border counties, and parts of Greensboro in Guilford County.

Six Democrats want the party nomination. They include Ron Ansley of Wake Forest, State Sen. Bill Martin of Greensboro, State Sen. Brad Miller of Raleigh, Former Congressman Robin Britt of Greensboro, Gene Gay from the Charlotte area and Larry Davis, a former state senator from Raleigh.

"The toughest challenge is to get our message to the people," Davis said."There are two media markets here. We have to raise lots of money to do that and to get the message across that this is an opportunity to look to the future, to improve the future of the people in the 13th district."

Republican candidates include Paul Smith, Graham Boyd and Carolyn Grant, all of Raleigh.

The campaigns will focus on the two metro areas: Raleigh, the state capitol, and Greensboro, in the Triad.

The campaigns were spinning their wheels waiting for court challenges to be resolved. Supporters told Republican candidate Boyd.

"I said 'Call me when you hear from the Supreme Court.' So yesterday was great news for us as candidates, great news for North Carolina as a state, because we are going to have an extra representative in the United States Congress," Boyd said.

The nine candidates running had assumed when they filed for the office back in January that there would be a May primary, then a runoff or second primary to select the party nominee for the November ballot.

Because of the legal challenge to Legislative district maps, the primary could be delayed until September, leaving no time for a runoff before the November election.