Pundits and pols in North Carolina now agree Democrats can pick up the 3rd U.S. House district that was in Republican hands for the past 25 years and which was once a bastion of support for the late conservative Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C.
The 17 Republicans vying for the seat of the late Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., were reduced to two Tuesday. The two top vote-getters, urologist and State Rep. Greg Murphy and pediatrician Joan Perry, will meet in the runoff July 9.
The winner will square off in a special election against centrist Democrat Allen Thomas on Sept. 10
"[The late Rep.] Walter Jones was a unique kind of Republican and could hold the district for so long," veteran North Carolina GOP consultant Marc Rotterman told Newsmax. "But Allen Thomas, the former mayor of Greenville [N.C.], won the Democratic primary without a runoff. He can use his own money and he's a different kind of Democrat."
Thomas is considered a centrist in the mold of fellow prosecutor Conor Lamb, who won the nationally watched special election last year in Pennsylvania's historically Republican 18th District. He and his brother, Craven County District Attorney Scott Thomas, have been likened to John and Robert Kennedy.
Both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee are expected to weigh in strongly behind Thomas.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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