Nickel wins North Carolina US House seat over GOP’s Hines

The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Democratic state Sen. Wiley Nickel defeated Republican political newcomer Bo Hines for an open U.S. House seat in a competitive district along Raleigh’s southern border, marking one of Democrats’ few major successes in the Southern swing state. With Nickel’s win in the 13th District, and another Democratic victory in the new 14th District, North Carolina Democrats flipped one seat and gained another, bringing the state’s representation in Congress to a 7-7 tie. The father of two said he thinks Hines is the right candidate to represent his “fiscally conservative perspective” at the national level but that Democrats’ ambitious spending goals are needed at the local level to bring North Carolina’s public schools “up to par.” North Carolina Republican state Sen. Chuck Edwards also defeated Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara to win an open U.S. House seat in the western North Carolina district currently represented by GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn, whom Edwards beat in the primary. And in the new left-leaning 14th District, based in western Charlotte, Democratic state Sen. Jeff Jackson defeated Republican businessman Pat Harrigan for the state’s newest seat.