Elections board rejects challenge of candidacy of a North Carolina state senator seeking a new seat

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Election officials in North Carolina’s largest county upheld Thursday the candidacy of a state senator in a district that she’s now running in because Republican colleagues enacted new boundaries that had otherwise drawn her into the same district with a fellow Democratic incumbent.

The Wake County Board of Elections voted unanimously to reject the candidate residency challenge against first-term state Sen. Lisa Grafstein, thus determining that she does live in the new 13th Senate District, WRAL-TV reported.

A Republican also running for the 13th District seat, Scott Lassiter, filed the complaint, alleging that Grafstein had not met the qualification in the state constitution of living in the new district for one year before November’s election to run for the seat. Lassiter could appeal the ruling to the State Board of Elections, which like the Wake board is composed of three registered Democrats and two Republicans.

Grafstein had announced in late October that she would run for the southern Wake County seat. She currently represents another Wake district that was heavily Democratic when voters elected her in 2022. The new 13th District is considered very politically competitive, and a GOP win could help the party extend its slim veto-proof majority into 2025.

Grafstein provided documents at Thursday’s hearing showing that she had moved to her new home in time, according to WRAL.

“I think it was pretty clear that I moved, and did exactly what I said I was going to do,” she told reporters after the board vote. Lassiter faces a GOP primary in March. Grafstein has no primary competition.

If Grafstein no longer lives in the current district that she represents, some state Republicans have argued, the state constitution disqualifies her from continuing to serve in the Senate for the remainder of the two-year session and that she should resign.

Grafstein, who is the only out LGBTQ+ senator in the chamber, plans to remain in the Senate this year and said Thursday the constitution doesn’t require her to step down. Senate leader Phil Berger has said he didn’t expect the chamber’s GOP majority to take action to attempt to remove her from her current Senate seat.