UPDATED: Republicans sweep Dare board and legislative seats By IRENE NOLAN

Republican candidates swept local legislative and Dare County races in last night’s general election.

Incumbent Republican Bill Cook of Chocowinity  soundly beat Democratic challenger Brownie Futrell of Washington for the state Senate District 1 seat.  With all of the precincts in the district reporting, including all of those in Dare and Hyde counties, Cook had 59 percent of the vote to Futrell’s 41 percent.

Meanwhile, the race for the N.C. House of Representatives District 6 seat was the only close local race of the evening. It also turned out to be the most interesting race of the evening, with two members of the Dare County Board of Commissioners running against each other for the seat — Democrat Warren Judge and Republican Beverly Boswell.

In a startling twist to the race, Judge died Nov. 5 — just three days before the election — after a brief illness.  His wife, Tess, had agreed to accept his votes and serve his term if he won.

With all precincts in the district reporting, Republican Beverly Boswell beat Judge by just 1,659 votes.  Boswell had 21,805 votes — 51.85 percent — to Judge’s 20,246 or 48.55 percent.

Four seats on the Dare County Board of Commissioners were up for election.

The only Democratic winner was Danny Couch of Buxton, who ran unopposed for the District 4 seat representing Hatteras Island. He will also be the only Democrat on the seven-member board.

Republican incumbent Wally Overman, current vice-chairman of the board, took 58 percent of the vote in his District 1 race with challenger, Democrat Rosemarie Doshier, who had 42 percent.

In District 2, Republican incumbent Bob Woodard, chairman of the board, also won over his Democratic challenger, John Towler, with 58 percent of the vote to Towler’s 42 percent.

Republican Steve House beat Democrat Monica Thibodeau for the seat that was vacated by Warren Judge when he decided to run for the state house. The margin in that race was 54 percent for House and 46 percent for Thibodeau.

In Hyde County, two candidates were unopposed for the three seats that were up for election to the Board of Commissioners.  Tom Pahl is the new Ocracoke Township Commissioner and Benjamin Simmons will represent Fairfield Township.  In Lake Landing Township, Earl Pugh beat challenger Thomas Midgette with 59 percent of the vote to Midgette’s 41.

At the top of the ballot, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump won North Carolina’s electoral votes with 49.9 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 46.1. Libertarian Gary Johnson ended up with 2.72 percent, and 1.23 percent of the votes were write-ins.

In a hard fought race, Democratic challenger Attorney General Roy Cooper clung to a very narrow lead over incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. Just 5,000 votes separated the two. With all precincts reporting, Cooper had 48.97 percent of the vote to McCrory’s.

McCrory ran up large margins in rural areas of the state, while Cooper did well in the Triangle and Mecklenburg County.

McCrory didn’t appear ready to concede last night and the race may be decided at the Nov. 18 canvass when provisional ballots are counted.

In another hard-fought race, incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr beat challenger Deborah Ross, a Democrat, with 51 percent of the vote to Ross’ 35.

U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones, a Republican, always runs up large percentages against his Democratic challengers and this race was no different.  Jones won the race for his 12th term representing North Carolina 3rd Congressional District with 67 percent of the vote to 33 percent for his challenger, Ernest T. Reeves.

The Republicans at the top of the ballot also won handily in Dare and Hyde counties:

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND UPDATED RESULTS

Dare County election results: http://er.ncsbe.gov/index.html?election_dt=11/08/2016&county_id=28

Hyde County election results:

http://er.ncsbe.gov/index.html?election_dt=11/08/2016&county_id=48

State Board of Elections for statewide results:

http://er.ncsbe.gov/?election_dt=11/08/2016&county_id=0&office=FED&contest=0