The North Carolina Primary Elections take place on March 3–next Tuesday. If you haven’t participated in Early Voting (which ends this Saturday, Febuary 28 at 3:00 PM) or Mail-in Voting (must arrive by March 3), then I urge you to be at the polls on Tuesday.

Polls show that voters are increasingly dissatified with both the Democratic and Republican parties and with their options in the November elections. I believe that is because so few of us vote in the party primaries. If all Americans voted in the primaries, I think we would have more diverse and perhaps more satisfying candidates to vote for in November.

The general statistic used about primaries is that only about 20% of eligible voters vote in them. In North Carolina, the figure was about 23% in the past couple of primaries. In my county, Wake County, just under 25% voted in the primaries in 2024, compared to just over 76% that voted in the November 2024 elections.

The problem is, the 25% primary voters are very different than the 76% general election voters.

With such a small turnout in primaries, the voters are skewed towards those who are heavily involved with either the Democratic or Republican party. And at least in North Carolina, they are more likely to be white and WAY more likely to be older than those who vote in November. People who are closely aligned with either party are more likely to get behind candidates who are similar to and so work well with the existing leadership and elected officials. Older voters tend towards more known and more familiar choices as well. So when only a quarter of all voters, or a third of general election voters CHOOSE the November candidates, you are more likely to get more of the same. I’m not saying that is necessarily bad if you like the elected officials you have and want to elect more people like them. But polls suggest that many people don’t feel that way.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Zohran Mamdani proved that by winning the New York City mayorial election. In order to do that, he had to draw in a lot of new and different voters to win the Democratic primary. I’m not an expert in NY politics (I can barely keep up with NC politics). But apparently at least the Good Old Boys contingent of NYC Democratic politics wanted to bring back Andrew Cuomo, despite the sexual improprieties scandal that forced him out of the NY Governor office. I guess they thought they could overlook that because they knew they could do business with him and trust him to play ball with them. Mamdani won both the primary and the general election because he inspired not the same old same old voters to turn out and to vote for him. He was particularly effective in getting young people to vote, which I think is fantastic. I think too many of our current elected officials are too elderly…and I’m more towards that demographic myself.

PLUS, North Carolina voters, there are some really interesting primary races that are worth your attention.

My favorite is Kate Barr, who is running as a Progressive in the REPUBLICAN primary in the NC 14 District race for the US House of Representatives. It used to be mostly a Democratic-leaning suburb of Democratic-leaning Charlotte. But it was part of the 2023 gerrymandering by the NC Legislature, which shifted the district’s Cook Partisan Voting Index from D+6 to R+8.

So what’s a liberal to do? For Kate Barr, it was switching her party affiliation and running as a Progressive candidate in the Republican primary. In her mind, that was the only way to give people a real choice, because the November election is effectively decided in the Republican primary. If you want to know more, please visit her website at:https://www.katebarrcanwin.com .

I LOVE this. If the Republicans continue to gerrymander (and I would say the same thing about the Democrats–I reject gerrymandering by either party), I hope we have tons of candidates who do the same thing in 2028.

Can she win? It’s possible. In North Carolina, the largest percentage of voters are Unaffiliated, meaning they haven’t chosen to align with any party. I am Unaffiliated, because I like to choose based on the person, not the party. And in NC, Unaffiliated voters get to choose which party primary they want to vote in. Were I in her district, I would ABSOLUTELY vote in the Republican primary for her.

If nothing more, she represents the power and the possibility of voting in the primaries.

Closer to home (but still not my District) is the NC-04 Congressional District. Even after the 2023 gerrymandering, this is a pretty blue district. So the Democratic primary will probably determine who will represent the district in DC. But what the gerrymandering did was to create a situation where two Triangle Democratic powerhouses are battling it out for the party’s nomination.

The NC-04 race is between Valerie Foushee, the African American 69-year-old two-term incumbent who is part of a Democratic dynasty in Orange County, and Nida Allam, a Muslim American raised in NC by her Indian and Pakistani immigrant parents, who is a Durham County Board Commissioner. Both have been barrier breakers, being the first of their ethnic background to serve in their respective jobs. Both have been progressives fighting for civil rights, protection for immigrants, and other liberal causes. But their styles and approaches are very different. Foushee doesn’t do a lot of live self promotion, preferring to work through the Democratic party and more traditional political approaches. Allam is more of a Mamdani-like candidate, putting herself out to the voters through social media and live events. Both are well known and well loved in their respective deep blue counties. But now the NC-04 distict combines parts of Orange and Durham county, but also includes sections of Morrisville, Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, and Fuquay-Varina. These fast-growing suburbs of Western Wake are Democratic-leaning, but arguably less liberal than Orange or Durham county. The belief is that the number of Fourshee’s Orange county voters and Allam’s Durham county voters are about tied, so the key to this race is who can convince the most Western Wake voters to vote for her.

Also in Wake County, but not in my area, is the City of Raleigh City Council at Large election for two new seats. The Democratic primary includes one quite young progressive candidate and another that openly identifies with the Socialist Party USA, the North Carolina Green Party, and the Triangle Democratic Socialists of America. There are also two new at Large spaces on the Wake County Board of Commissioners, which I DO get to vote for. There are seven interesting and diverse candidates running in the Democratic primary, making my decision in that race very hard, because they all sounded great when I went to a candidate forum with them. But it gives me an opportunity to vote on my priorities, what kind of an ethnic, gender, age, experience, sexual preference mix I would like to see on the Board, and what kind of “energy” I want my elected officials to have. (There is no Republican primary for this race because only two Republican candidates are running, and so are automatically on the November ballot.)

And it’s not just the Democrats. Veteran Republicans Virginia Foxx, US NC-05, and Phil Burger, NC Senate District 26, are facing their most competitive primary challenges in years. Phil Berger has been Senate President Pro Tempore since 2011 and is considered the most powerful NC state legislator. But a popular long-time sheriff from Rockingham County, Sam Page, is opposing him. Berger has been endorsed by Trump, so it will be interesting to see if that ends up helping or hurting him.

Another reason to vote in the primary is that some offices are decided in the primary because they are no opponents outside their party. We have a situation like that here in Wake County because while there are three Democratic candidates for Wake County District Attorney, there are no Independent or Republican or other Party candidates. So that office will be determined by the Democratic primary. Again, we have three great candidates: an African American woman with experience in DA offices in New York and North Carolina, a white female who has worked in the Wake County DA office for quite some time, and a white man who is a lawyer but has never worked in a DA office but has been a Wake County elected official. So he has the least experience, but has the most political connections, and also seems to be be the one who is most progressive about persecuting cases of undue force among law enforcement, including by ICE and other Homeland Security officers. So do you favor more diverse experience, deep experience and expertise in the Wake County DA office, or a DA with more political experience than administrative experience? You can only express your opinion by voting in the Democratic primary.

One last reason why everyone in North Carolina should vote in the primaries. Since the whole contested Riggs election (see https://blissfullu.com/2025/04/08/nc-voters-check-the-griffin-list-to-make-sure-your-2024-vote-is-counted/ for details), Republican NC legislators passed a law that allowed a Republican elected official to choose members of the state election board instead of the Governor, who happened to be a Democrat. Since then, the NC Board of Elections has been more focused on purging voter rolls and eliminating people who have minor errors in their voter registration (such as transposing two number in their zip code). They are supposed to notify people who have been removed, but..

But if you are able to vote in the primary, you should be able to vote in the general election unless you move or change your voter registration. Or you can check https://www.ncsbe.gov/registrationrepair if you have concerns.

Bottom line is, I think there’s a lot of juice in voting in the primaries. So why don’t more people vote? I think it’s mostly because they don’t know how to get information about the candidates so they can make an educated choice. The major parties, where many people get their voting information, tend not to publically endorse one of its members over the other. So you often have to look elsewhere for voters guides

I can’t help everyone with that problem. But for those of us in the Triangle area, we have a wonderful resource.

First, go to the NC Board of Elections to get your sample ballot for the primary at: https://www.ncsbe.gov/voting/sample-ballot.

Then, go to the extensive election coverage section of INDY WEEK at: https://indyweek.com/elections2026/

They have articles about selected races, including the Triangle races I’ve discussed–and more. Keep hitting the Load More Stories button until you find your races. Plus, they have candidate questionnaires for all the races…or at least from those candidates that responded. That is a great way to learn about candidates from their own words, not from a reporter’s interpretation of their views. You can access that at: https://indyweek.com/news/2026-primary-candidate-questionnaires/.

And then go vote. It’s not that hard (but bring photo ID) and usually doesn’t take that long. It is the root of our democracy. If you aren’t happy with the state of things, change starts with the people voting. And the people voting starts with the primaries. So I hope you will join me in voting in the 2026 primaries–even if you are in a different party or if your candidate defeats mine. I believe the more people that vote, the stronger and healthier our democracy is.