Businessman and Democrat Eric Henry and Republican State Representative Dennis Riddell are competing for the 64th District’s seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives, a district that encompasses a large portion of Alamance County. Henry will look to topple Riddell’s incumbency, while Riddell will look to secure his fifth term as representative.
10:02: p.m —
With 38,355 ballots counted so far, Republican Dennis Riddell is leading with 57.65% of the vote. Democrat Eric Henry trails by 15.3 percentage points.
Henry said he is “feeling optimistic, but it is too early to feel confident”. He said he expected to be down in the polls initially.
Dennis Riddell did not respond to Elon News Network’s request for comment.
9:04 p.m. —
The polls are now closed in North Carolina. First time candidate Eric Henry said when he visited the 19 voting locations today, in-person voter turnout was light compared to previous years. In response to the pandemic, many voters opted to vote early or by absentee this year.
Henry said that due to COVID-19, he was unable to use traditional campaign techniques like “knocking on doors” and “campaigning” that would have boosted his campaign. Henry said he and opponent Dennis Riddell never got to debate, which is something he wanted to do.
“We really never got to have those discussions that I wanted to have,” Henry said.
Riddell ran unopposed by a democratic candidate in the 2016 district 64 election.
“The main reason I was running was to give our community a choice they hadn’t had in past years,” Henry said
Dennis Riddell did not respond to Elon News Network’s request for comment.