north carolina

North Carolina Republicans are gearing up for a showdown between 13th District Rep. George Holding and 2nd District Rep. Renee Ellmers as a result of a proposed new congressional map the General Assembly approved Friday.

"Nobody's too thrilled about a primary, but that's the democratic way," Carter Wrenn, a consultant working for the Holding campaign, told  The Raleigh News and Observer . 

By moving up all its primaries from May to March 15, North Carolina thought it would be playing a more pivotal role in this year's presidential election. But a recent federal court ruling invalidating two of the state's congressional districts threatens to delay this year's earlier-than-normal primary and upend elections in which early voting is already under way.  

A three-judge panel ruled on Feb. 5 that the GOP-legislature relied too heavily on race in 2011 to draw the 1st and 12th Districts. The court gave the state until Feb. 19 to draw new districts, and on Tuesday, the same court denied a request from the state to stay its decision.  

Habitat for Humanity lobbied on Capitol Hill this week for changes to the country’s housing policies. The Habitat on the Hill conference had support from 200 Habitat for Humanity leaders, homeowners and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C.  

“I have a very long and intimate relationship with the local affiliate [back home in North Carolina] and Habitat in general to make federal regulations not effect affording housing,” Meadows told HOH. He first met with Habitat in fall 2013. The congressman now reaches out to the group from a legislative standpoint.  

Republican Jim Duncan has released his first TV ad in his primary campaign to unseat North Carolina 2nd District Rep. Renee Ellmers. The ad, titled "Chicken," goes on air in the Raleigh and Greensboro markets Wednesday and represents an initial $30,000 buy the campaign is hoping to last "a couple of weeks" and is negotiating to extend beyond that. The buy includes airtime during morning and evening news and afternoon programming, campaign spokesman Sean Moser told Roll Call.  

"Here's the thing about professional politicians; they're chicken," Duncan says in the spot, standing next to a bale of hay on which several chickens are propped. "I never ran for political office before," Duncan says proudly touting his experience as a "businessman, a husband, a father, a conservative, a soldier in the national guard."  

Former North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan is back to splitting her time between Washington and the Tar Heel State. She's just not doing what she thought she'd be doing, or what Democrats hoped she would be doing in 2017.  

After narrowly losing her 2014 re-election, Hagan taught at the Harvard Institute of Politics , and on Monday, she started a new job at the lobbying firm Akin Gump  in Washington, D.C.  

Obstetrician and 2014 Senate candidate Greg Brannon barely snuck under Monday's filing deadline to challenge North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr in March's primary.  

Whether that's too late for Brannon to amass the tea party support he might need to unseat a two-term senator remains to be seen, but so far, the kinds of groups that would back an anti-incumbent challenger such as Brannon don't sound effusive about his candidacy.  

In a defeat for North Carolina Democrats, who hold just three of the states's 11 congressional seats, the state Supreme Court upheld the state's current congressional and legislative map Friday.  

The court found that the GOP legislature did not illegally consider race when  drawing the district lines in 2011. Democrats had been hoping that a ruling against the current map would help them pick up another seat in a redraw.  

Despite Democrats' surprising victory last week in Louisiana — where state Rep. John Bel Edwards beat Republican Sen. David Vitter in the runoff –  they hold only 18 gubernatorial seats, compared to the 31 held by Republican governors.  

Next year, Democrats will defend eight seats, including ones in targeted U.S. Senate battle grounds such as Missouri and New Hampshire, while Republicans will defend four.  Missouri: With incumbent Democrat Jay Nixon on his way out,  Republicans believe one of their top pickup opportunities is in Missouri, where the chief executive's office has been held by Democrats for all but four of the past 22 years.  

The filing deadline to run in North Carolina's primaries is less than a month away. But with a redistricting case still outstanding, anyone interested in running for Congress can't know for sure what district they'll find themselves in.  

The boundaries of the 1st and 12th districts have been challenged on the grounds that the GOP legislature packed too many black voters into those districts when they drew them in 2011.  

EMILY's List, a group that supports Democratic women who back abortion rights, put four more Republican senators "On Notice" Tuesday — a signal the group could spend money to try to topple those incumbents in 2016.  

The four are among Democrats' top targets next year, when the party will seek to net the five seats necessary to ensure Senate control. All four are likely to face female challengers whom EMILY's List has endorsed or is looking at endorsing in the coming months.