United States Senate election in North Carolina, 2026 (March 3 Republican primary)

← 2022
U.S. Senate, North Carolina
Democratic primary Republican primary General election
Election details
Filing deadline: December 19, 2025
Primary: March 3, 2026 Primary runoff: May 12, 2026 General: November 3, 2026
How to vote
Poll times: 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Voting in North Carolina
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Toss-up DDHQ and The Hill: Pending Inside Elections: Toss-up Sabato's Crystal Ball: Toss-up
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026
See also
U.S. Senate, North Carolina U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th • 13th • 14th North Carolina elections, 2026 U.S. Congress elections, 2026 U.S. Senate elections, 2026 U.S. House elections, 2026 Alabama U.S. Senate raceAlaska U.S. Senate raceArkansas U.S. Senate raceColorado U.S. Senate raceDelaware U.S. Senate raceGeorgia U.S. Senate raceIdaho U.S. Senate raceIllinois U.S. Senate raceIowa U.S. Senate raceKansas U.S. Senate raceKentucky U.S. Senate raceLouisiana U.S. Senate raceMaine U.S. Senate raceMassachusetts U.S. Senate raceMichigan U.S. Senate raceMinnesota U.S. Senate raceMississippi U.S. Senate raceMontana U.S. Senate raceNebraska U.S. Senate raceNew Hampshire U.S. Senate raceNew Jersey U.S. Senate raceNew Mexico U.S. Senate raceNorth Carolina U.S. Senate raceOklahoma U.S. Senate raceOregon U.S. Senate raceRhode Island U.S. Senate raceSouth Carolina U.S. Senate raceSouth Dakota U.S. Senate raceTennessee U.S. Senate raceTexas U.S. Senate raceVirginia U.S. Senate raceWest Virginia U.S. Senate raceWyoming U.S. Senate raceSubmit

A Republican Party primary takes place on March 3, 2026, in North Carolina to determine which Republican candidate will run in the state's general election on November 3, 2026.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
December 19, 2025	March 3, 2026	November 3, 2026

Heading into the election, the incumbent is Thom Tillis (Republican), who was first elected in 2014.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. North Carolina utilizes a semi-closed primary system. Parties decide who may vote in their respective primaries. Voters may choose a primary ballot without impacting their unaffiliated status.

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on North Carolina's United States Senate Republican primary. For more in-depth information on the state's Democratic primary and the general election, see the following pages:

• United States Senate election in North Carolina, 2026 (March 3 Democratic primary)
• United States Senate election in North Carolina, 2026

Candidates and election results

Note: The following list of candidates is unofficial. The filing deadline for this election has passed, and Ballotpedia is working to update this page with the official candidate list. This note will be removed once the official candidate list has been added.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. Senate North Carolina

The following candidates are running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate North Carolina on March 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Don Brown
	Submit photo	Richard Dansie
	Submit photo	Margot Dupre
		Thomas Johnson
		Michele Morrow
		Elizabeth Anne Temple
		Michael Whatley

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Brooks Agnew (R)
• Andy Nilsson (R)
• Thom Tillis (R)

Candidate profiles

This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.

Thomas Johnson

Party: Republican Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

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Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

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Extend Religious Liberty and the essential freedom of assembly to include all Evangelical Christian churches. Designate churches and houses of worship as essential institutions in our state with a right to convene during national or state crisis or tragic events.

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Dramatically improve American military veteran healthcare across North Carolina and our nation. Our veterans deserve the BEST healthcare. I will tie veteran healthcare outcomes directly to healthcare provider, hospital executive, and VA Administration leaders pay, job tenure and incentives.

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Reduce North Carolina's grocery bills by at least $200 a month / $2,400 a year by revising and amending existing legislation. Extend existing provisions for tax credits and tax offsets for grocery stores like Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Walmart to pass along savings to grocery store customers. Incentivize the reduction of the cost of cold-chain storage, freight bottlenecks and last mile deliveries so consumers enjoy the savings.

Voting information

See also: Voting in North Carolina

Ballotpedia will publish the dates and deadlines related to this election as they are made available.

Campaign finance

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Don Brown	Republican Party	$114,296	$70,326	$44,811	As of September 30, 2025
Richard Dansie	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Margot Dupre	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Thomas Johnson	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Michele Morrow	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Elizabeth Anne Temple	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Michael Whatley	Republican Party	$1,380,875	$253,977	$1,126,898	As of September 30, 2025
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. *** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. Senate candidates in North Carolina in the 2026 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in North Carolina, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. Senate candidates, 2026
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
North Carolina	U.S. Senate	Ballot-qualified party	10,000	$1,740.00	12/19/2025	Source
North Carolina	U.S. Senate	Unaffiliated	1.5% of all registered N.C. voters who voted in the most recent election for N.C. Governor	$1,740.00	12/19/2025	Source

See also

• United States Senate election in North Carolina, 2026 (March 3 Democratic primary)
• United States Senate election in North Carolina, 2026
• United States Senate Democratic Party primaries, 2026
• United States Senate Republican Party primaries, 2026
• United States Senate elections, 2026
• U.S. Senate battlegrounds, 2026

External links

Suggest a link

• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

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North Carolina's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Ted Budd (R)

Thom Tillis (R)

Representatives

District 1

Donald Davis (D)

District 2

Deborah Ross (D)

District 3

Gregory Murphy (R)

District 4

Valerie Foushee (D)

District 5

Virginia Foxx (R)

District 6

Addison McDowell (R)

District 7

David Rouzer (R)

District 8

Mark Harris (R)

District 9

Richard Hudson (R)

District 10

Pat Harrigan (R)

District 11

Chuck Edwards (R)

District 12

Alma Adams (D)

District 13

Brad Knott (R)

District 14

Timothy Moore (R)

Republican Party (12)

Democratic Party (4)

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Super PACs/Organizations

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