Filing for the 2022 election finally ended on Friday, March 4, and the North Carolina congressional districts drawn by judges, not the legislature, at the very least ended any confusion for voters in Guilford County.

There is still the potential for more confusion, since the NC legislature has appealed the court drawn redistricting to the US Supreme Court.  There is no word as yet on whether the Supreme Court will hear the case.

The original map drawn by the North Carolina legislature divided Guilford County into three congressional districts.  The revised map drawn by the legislature divided the county into two congressional districts, but the final map drawn by three judges and approved by the NC Supreme Court doesn’t divide Guilford County at all.

Just as in the 2020 election, all of Guilford County is in the 6th Congressional District, which also includes part of Forsyth, all of Rockingham and all but a small piece of Caswell counties.

The short notice did not deter candidates from filing for the 6th District and a total of nine candidates filed for the congressional seat currently held by Democratic 6th District Congresswoman Kathy Manning who is running for reelection.  The 6th District according to Ballotpedia is “Likely Democrat.”  According to Ballotpedia the partisan analysis by independent groups has not been completed, but sources say that the newly drawn 6th District is a “D+4” district, which means the generic Democrat against a generic Republican would win by 4 percentage points.

Manning has no Democratic opposition in the May 17 primary.

However, there are seven candidates in the Republican primary vying for the opportunity to run against Manning in the Nov. 8 general election.

The Republicans who have filed to run in the North Carolina 6th Congressional District are William (Bill) Schuch from Greensboro, Laura Pichardo from Pelham, Gerry Austin from Summerfield, Marvin Boguslawski from Jamestown, Lee Haywood from Summerfield, Christian Castelli from Southern Pines and Mary Ann Contogiannis from Greensboro.

In 2020 Haywood won the Republican primary and was defeated by Manning in the general election. Haywood gained a lot of name recognition in that election, which should be a plus in the Republican primary, despite the fact that the district boundaries have changed.

Libertarian Thomas Watercott has filed to run and has no opponent in the May 17 primary.

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