ELECTION RESULTS: Incumbents win big in NC Senate races

Featured photo: Phil Berger, Michael Garrett, Gladys Robinson, Dana Caudill Jones and Paul Lowe. (file photo)

In the state Senate races for the Triad, incumbents won big, with only one newcomer taking a seat after the former representative decided not to run for reelection this year. As of 12:20 a.m. on Wednesday, these were the results.

District 26

WINNER: R – Phil Berger 

D – Steve Luking

C – Alvin Robinson

Incumbent Phil Berger won this race with 52.6 percent of the vote compared to Lukin’s 43 percent and Robinson’s 4 percent. 

Berger has served 12 terms since he was first elected in 2000. He served as minority leader of the state Senate from 2005-11 and became the president pro-tem of the state Senate in 2011. Over the past 24 years in office, Berger has sponsored or supported numerous conservative bills including the anti-trans HB2, voter ID laws, the gerrymandering of districts, blocking public access to police body cameras and more. This year, Berger sponsored S631, a bill that blocks gender-affirming care for children. 

District 27

WINNER: D – Michael Garrett 

R – Paul Schumacher

Incumbent Michael Garrett handily won his seat after garnering more than 60 percent of the vote early in the night on Tuesday. 

Garrett has represented the 27^th District since he was elected in 2018, flipping the seat from Republican Trudy Wade. Since then, Garrett has sponsored bills that would strengthen gun control, release police body-camera footage to citizen review boards, make certain chokeholds by police illegal and make Election Day a national holiday. On his website, Garrett notes that if elected, he would support a statewide school infrastructure bond, restore bonus pay for teachers with master’s degrees, expand Medicaid and give tax credits to small business owners. He would also support clean energy, work to pass bills that hold polluters accountable and work against gerrymandering.  He is opposed to the use of public tax dollars for private school vouchers. 

District 28

WINNER: D – Gladys Robinson

Incumbent Gladys Robinson won this race after running unopposed in the general election. Robinson has served seven terms in the senate. She has sponsored bills that supported HBCUs and opioid reversal drug funding.

District 31

WINNER: R – Dana Caudill Jones

D – Ronda Mays

Republican Dana Caudill Jones won District 31 by more than 25 percentage points on Tuesday night with 95 percent of precincts reporting in. Jones, who served as Mayor Pro Tem on Kernersville’s Board of Alderman from 2011-13 and on the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education from 2015-18, beat Democrat Ronda Mays. 

While she didn’t have any platform positions on her website, her press release and posts on Facebook show that she is a Trump supporter, an advocate for teachers, a proponent of school choice, anti-abortion and a supporter of the Second Amendment.

District 32

WINNER: D – Paul Lowe 

R – George Ware

L – Zac Lentz

Incumbent Democrat Paul Lowe handily won his seat for District 32 on Tuesday, garnering more than 68 percent of the vote. 

Lowe has served in the state Senate for the 32nd District since 2015. In that time, he has supported bills that would prohibit the release of mugshots to the public and media, restore state employee and teacher retiree medical benefits, make police footage more readily available and legalize medical marijuana in the state. According to his website, Lowe would work to expand Medicaid, push for school bonds to build and repair schools and create programs to help community college students finish their degrees and find good jobs.