Four incumbents lost in the Republican primaries for the North Carolina House of Representatives on March 3, 2026. The general election is on November 3, 2026.

The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of 88 state legislative chambers with elections in 2026. There are 99 chambers throughout the country.

Ahead of the election, the News & Observer's Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi said the elections "could be complicated by a group of candidates running in the upcoming primary election who switched political parties last year." According to Guinassi, 26 legislative candidates switched party affiliations ahead of the elections.

That included six teachers, all previously Democrats or unaffiliated, whom the group NC Educators on the Ballot recruited to run against current and former Republican incumbents in the Republican primaries. Group organizer Patricia Saylor said, "With the way our state is carved up into voter districts in a lot of places, the decision about who is going to Raleigh doesn’t happen in the November general election. It happens in the March primary. And so if that’s where it’s going to happen, then that’s where these people are entering the conversation and entering the race.” None of the group's candidates won their primary.

On its website, the group described itself as "a statewide, grassroots effort to give voters across the state a choice to support educators on the ballot in Republican-held districts, keeping the needs of students and public schools at the center of the conversation." The state GOP said in a statement to the News and Observer, "NC Educators on the Ballot is led by a registered Democrat to interfere and mislead voters in Republican primaries. Republicans have led on education policy for years, from improving classroom performance to expanding school choice for every family."

Four Republican House incumbents lost in the primaries, including three Ballotpedia identified as battleground districts — A. Reece Pyrtle, Jr. in District 65, Keith Kidwell in District 79, and Mark Pless in District 118. The fourth was Kelly Hastings in District 110, who lost to Caroline Eason in her first run for office.

Heading into the elections, Republicans were one seat shy of a supermajority in the House and held a 30-20 supermajority in the Senate. Nine House seats were open, meaning no incumbent filed to run, the fewest in the chamber since 2014. Twenty-nine Republican House incumbents faced primary challenges, the most for the party since 2010.

Of the 39 contested Republican primaries, Ballotpedia designated 21 as battlegrounds. Ballotpedia makes battleground designations for state legislative primaries based on electoral competitiveness and political context. Criteria include open seats, incumbents' prior electoral performance, and the presence of organized or experienced challengers.

Click here to read more about the battleground Republican primaries for North Carolina House in 2026.