# All NC State house and senate races have 2 major party candidates running
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [March 5, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084 "2018-03-05T22:03:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/1 "2018-03-05T22:03:49Z")
Last time in 2016, 73 seats of 170 ran unopposed.
> **[All NC Legislative Races Will Have Candidates From Both Major Parties](https://www.wunc.org/politics/2018-03-01/all-nc-legislative-races-will-have-candidates-from-both-major-parties)**
>
> For the first time ever, all 170 races for the North Carolina General Assembly will have candidates from both major parties.A flurry of candidate filings…
I’m sure there will be blowouts but this shows how fired up the Dems are , most of those 73 seats that were only 1 party lacked a Dem.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/2 "2018-03-05T23:20:15Z")
Good. I’ve never been a fan of leaving a seat unopposed. You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket, and running in even a hopeless race can prepare a candidate for running and winning in a future race.
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/3 "2018-03-06T01:54:29Z")
I assume most of these are legit candidates and not political science professors or well known local eccentrics?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/4 "2018-03-06T02:54:54Z")
In what sense are political science professors not legit candidates?
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/5 "2018-03-06T03:02:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> In what sense are political science professors not legit candidates?
Many of them run novelty campaigns just for the heck of it. Sure, there’s the occasional David Brat (who was an economics professor) knocking off Eric Cantor, but most of them just run for the experience with no intent on winning.
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### Author:  [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/6 "2018-03-06T06:41:36Z")
> [@dalej42](#):
>
> Many of them run novelty campaigns just for the heck of it. Sure, there’s the occasional David Brat (who was an economics professor) knocking off Eric Cantor, but most of them just run for the experience with no intent on winning.
Got a cite for that first sentence?
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### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/7 "2018-03-06T12:04:44Z")
you have to live in the district so I don’t see professors running in small rural districts.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/8 "2018-03-06T12:36:09Z")
Yeah–I’d bet pretty good money that every district with a significant university or college with a poli-sci department already has Democratic candidates running there.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/9 "2018-03-06T14:05:30Z")
And even a novelty candidate is better than nobody at all. It tells you what the baseline is: how many people will vote for a candidate in that district just because they’ve got the right party affiliation.
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### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/10 "2018-03-06T16:38:39Z")
actually my US Congressman is a former Duke poli science professor. Except for 2 years he’s been in office since 1986. The GOP gerrymandered all the Durham and Chapel Hill liberals into his district to make the other districts more red. It seems he’s not leaving office until he’s 6 feet under.
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### Author:  [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/11 "2018-03-06T17:02:49Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> you have to live in the district so I don’t see professors running in small rural districts.
Is that true in NC? I ask, because it’s not true in Washington (state.) In face, my representative does not live in my district. Her opponent tried to make an issue of it last go 'round (the seat was open and both candidates were lefty Democrats), but no one seemed to care.
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### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/12 "2018-03-06T17:16:00Z")
Pretty sure it’s still true here about living in the district.
I know in NC for US Congress you don’t have to live in the district and one guy lived just outside his after the lines were moved but he won re-election.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/13 "2018-03-06T21:59:04Z")
It’s also possible to live in a rural district while still being within commuting range of a university. One of my professors (physics, not poli sci) ran for the Montana legislature, and lost, largely because the district he lives in doesn’t include the university or immediate environs, and so was a lot more conservative.
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### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2018, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/14 "2018-03-06T23:18:35Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> Pretty sure it’s still true here about living in the district.
>
> I know in NC for US Congress you don’t have to live in the district and one guy lived just outside his after the lines were moved but he won re-election.
I checked and you do have to live in the district you are running in. For state house you have to live there for 1 year before the election. For state senate it’s 2 years
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### Author:  [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-nc-state-house-and-senate-races-have-2-major-party-candidates-running/810084/15 "2018-03-08T21:00:02Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> I checked and you do have to live in the district you are running in. For state house you have to live there for 1 year before the election. For state senate it’s 2 years
District in this thread seemed to sometimes refer to federal congressional districts, and sometimes to state legislative districts. My earlier comment about Washington is true for our Congressional districts. I have no idea about our legislative districts.