Congressional candidate Brad Knott wins North Carolina’s 13th District race, AP projects

Brad Knott, whose endorsement of former president donald trump pursued his opponent and won Tuesday’s runoff to decide the Republican primary, the Associated Press projected as results came in.

Knott took the lead over Kelly Daughtry with over 88% of the vote. This occurred with just 3,255 mail-in ballots and early voting.

The AP called the race just before 8 p.m.

“I am humbled and honored that the constituents of the 13th District have trusted me to be their conservative representative in Washington, D.C.,” Knott said in a written statement. “Now that the primaries are behind us, we can focus on winning in November so we can get to work solving the serious problems facing our country with smart, conservative solutions.”

Celebratory messages from conservatives arrived quickly.

“Congratulations to Brad Knott on his primary victory,” said Delanie Bomar, spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “As a former federal prosecutor who got tough on the cartels, Brad is a perfect antidote to the dangerous open frontier of extremist House Democrats. The overwhelming majority of North Carolina voters will send Brad to Congress in November.”

A victory in the Republican Party primaries for Knot, 38, he would be it will likely mean he will serve in Congress, after state lawmakers redrawn the 13th Congressional District to heavily favor a Republican victory.

However, Knott still faces Democratic candidate Frank Pierce in the Nov. 5 general election.

How did we get here?

The 13th Congressional District includes Caswell, Franklin, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Person and parts of Granville and Wake counties.

Rep. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat from Cary, currently represents the district but chose not to run for re-election knowing that the political makeup of the district made it nearly impossible for him to win.

Instead, he is resisting gerrymandering and looking at a possible Senate run in 2026.

With Nickel’s departure, 14 Republicans – 13 men and one woman – entered the race.

Daughtry, 54, a Johnston County attorney, led all candidates in the March 5 Republican primary with more than 27 percent of the vote.

But North Carolina law requires a candidate to secure more than 30% to avoid a runoff with the runner-up.

And that was Knott, who got almost 19% of the vote.

Knott called for a runoff, but Daughtry continued to lead in internal polls.

Until a month later, when Trump came out and supported Knott, while telling voters that Daughtry is “no friend of MAGA.” Trump’s message turned the race upside down.

Internal polls then showed that Daughtry’s 20-point lead had become a 20-point deficit. Knott’s campaign released her research in a press release just days before she dropped out. Her campaign didn’t feel it could top what Trump had done.

On May 2, Daughtry announced that she would drop out of the race.

Daughtry’s decision came after more than 3,100 voters had already cast their ballots.

There was no official way for Daughtry to withdraw from the race or stop the election, meaning she did nothing more than stop campaigning.

If Daughtry won on Tuesday night but chose not to accept the spot, Knott would not have been declared the winner. Instead, the local Republican Party would choose the party’s candidate.

So Daughtry forced Knott into an awkward position, forced to continue the campaign without a true opponent.

Who is Knott?

Knott, a former federal prosecutor, grew up in Raleigh with a family deeply rooted in the Triangle.

He is one of six siblings and is part of a set of quadruplets.

Inspired by his father, he knew he wanted to be a prosecutor and continually applied for the position until he landed a temporary position. That became permanent after he gained fame prosecuting a drug kingpin who ran one of the biggest operations in North Carolina in decades.

But Knott decided to run for Congress after, he said, he watched President Joe Biden’s immigration policies make it harder for him to do his job.