By Fatma Younis
Rep. Richard Hudson, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, lost his re-election bid in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District on Tuesday, NBC News projected. Democrat Richard Ojeda defeated Hudson by about two percentage points in a district Republicans had held since 1963.
Second party campaign chairman defeated in consecutive midterms
Hudson becomes the second party campaign committee chairman to lose a re-election race in the last two midterm cycles. In 2022, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Sean Patrick Maloney lost his seat in New York’s 17th District.
Down-ballot impact from Senate race
Republicans largely stopped investing in North Carolina’s high-profile Senate contest weeks before the election after former Gov. Roy Cooper built a nearly 20-point lead over Republican Michael Whatley, Trump’s handpicked candidate. Cooper’s projected victory boosted multiple down-ballot Democrats across the state.
