North Carolina's 9th congressional district is a congressional district in south-central North Carolina. The district's current boundaries were redrawn in February 2016 after a U.S. District Court overturned the existing boundaries because of politically directed gerrymandering that suppressed minority representation. The new congressional district consists of Union, Chatham, Anson, Richmond, Scotland, and Robeson counties; a southeast portion of Mecklenburg County; and parts of Cumberland, Moore and Bladen counties.
Republicans have held this district since 1963. Republican Robert Pittenger had represented the district since January 2013. In 2018, Pittenger was defeated by challenger Mark Harris in the Republican primary. The latter faced Democrat Dan McCready in the general election.
Harris was initially called as the winner by several hundred votes, but the result was not certified, pending a statewide investigation into allegations of absentee ballot fraud. On February 21, the bipartisan State Election Board unanimously voted to call for a new election for the 9th district, because of ballot fraud by Republican operatives.
A special election was held September 10, 2019, with Democrat Dan McCready running against Republican Dan Bishop, a state senator who won the Republican primary. Bishop won the 2019 special election to the U.S. House of Representatives with 50.7% of the vote to McCready's 48.7%.
Candidate filing began February 24, 2022 after the North Carolina Supreme Court approved a new map which changed the 9th district boundaries to include Chatham, Hoke, Lee, Moore, Randolph and Scotland Counties and parts of Cumberland, Harnett and Richmond Counties.
The ninth district is currently represented by Richard Hudson.
Counties
Counties in the 2023–2025 congressional district map: Chatham County Cumberland County (part) Harnett County (part) Hoke County Lee County Moore County Randolph County Richmond County (part) Scotland County
List of members representing the district
2018 Voter Fraud
In the Republican primary incumbent Robert Pittenger was defeated by former pastor Mark Harris, who had closely challenged him two years earlier. Harris won 48.5 percent of the vote to Pittenger's 46.2 percent.
The New York Times described the election between Harris and Democrat Dan McCready as a "top-tier contest". In results on election day, Harris defeated McCready by 905 votes, but on November 27, 2018, the North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Reform declined to certify the election results, citing voting irregularities involving absentee ballots. The irregularities in counting and handling of absentee ballots became the subject of a criminal investigation.
Outlets such as the Associated Press and FiveThirtyEight subsequently retracted calling the race, pending the decision of the state board of elections. On December 1, the chair of the state elections board resigned, saying: "The investigation of criminal conduct and absentee voting fraud in the 2018 Republican primary and 2018 general election in congressional district 9 is a matter of vital importance to our democracy", adding that "I will not allow myself to be used as an instrument of distraction in this investigation".
On November 30, the election board of the district decided to hear evidence about "claims of numerous irregularities and concerted fraudulent activities" at a meeting to be held by December 21. A finding of fraud could have resulted in a new election.