In Guilford County, the Republican versus Democrat count on North Carolina state Senate races remains the same, which is two Republicans and two Democrats.
Since both Republican state senators elected in 2018 to represent Guilford County were not on the ballot, there were two open seats. Republican Amy Galey won the District 24 state Senate seat with 52.5 percent of the vote over Democrat J.D. Wooten with 47.5 percent.
The seat is currently held by Republican state Sen. Rick Gunn, who did not run for reelection.
This was an ugly race with accusations of fraud, a lawsuit and a lot of negative advertising. Both parties poured money into the race. The Democrats saw this as a seat they could pick up, but it didn’t happen. This is the second time Wooten has lost the state Senate District 24 race.
The other open seat was created when former Republican District 26 state Sen. Jerry Tillman retired at the end of the legislative session in June.
Republican District 26 state Sen. David Craven was appointed to replace Tillman, so had the advantage of running as an incumbent. Craven won the election to keep his seat with 70.4 percent of the vote to 29.6 percent for Democrat Jane Gant.
Democrat District 27 state Sen. Michael Garrett won reelection with 66,733 votes for 54.3 percent over Republican challenger Sebastian King with 56,119 votes for 45.7 percent.
In 2018, Garrett defeated incumbent Republican District 27 state Sen. Trudy Wade by 937 votes. So Garrett running as an incumbent increased his margin considerably, despite the fact that King ran an active campaign.
Democrat District 69 state Sen. Gladys Robinson was reelected with 76.3 percent of the vote over Republican challenger D.R. King with 23.7 percent.
With this election, Robinson won her sixth term in the state Senate. In previous races she has defeated Wade, Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston and former Guilford County Commissioner Bruce Davis. It seems a very safe bet to predict that Robinson will continue to be the District 69 state senator until she decides to retire.
Statewide the Republicans held on to their majority in the state Senate and state House, which means going forward the state is going to continue to have a Republican legislature and a Democratic governor.
