Colin Campbell

With 99 percent of the ballots counted so far, according to the Associated Press, incumbent Congresswoman Valerie Foushee was ahead by about 1,200 votes, less than 1 percent of votes cast.

Under state law, provisional votes will be counted in the days ahead, and challenger Nida Alam could be eligible to request a recount.

The race has attracted millions of dollars in ad spending from outside groups backing each candidate.

Backed by independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Alam argued that Foushee should have taken a stronger approach to opposing immigration enforcement and Israel's war in Gaza.

But the congresswoman says she's been fighting on both those fronts.

The district in the Durham-Chapel Hill area is virtually guaranteed to elect a Democrat in November.

For NPR News, I'm Colin Campbell.

Yeah.

So on the Republican side, we have Michael Watley, who's the Trump endorsed candidate in the primary.

He was previously the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

He led the Republican Party in North Carolina before that.

But it's his first run for elected office outside of party leadership roles.

And on the Democratic side, we've got former Governor Roy Cooper running.

He served two terms, left office about a year or so ago.

And he is likely the candidate on the Democratic side.

He's been in office for decades here, never lost an election.

Democrats really hopeful that this could be the year that he could be the candidate that gets them across the finish line in a Senate race.

Yeah, I mean, voters here will have a choice on their ballot.

There's multiple candidates in each party's primary.

But this is a situation where both parties, I think, saw some pretty high stakes in this race and early on decided to anoint their candidates.