North Carolina State Senate District 1 – Bill Cook (R)

The 1st State Senate district is located in the far eastern part of the state, taking in most of the Outer Banks and a number of counties in the Albemarle Sound region. It’s currently represented by Republican Bill Cook and has seen some tight election contests in the past. The tightest of all was the 2012 race, where Cook won by 21 votes. A 2014 rematch between the candidates from that contest yielded a much stronger result for Cook; he won with 53%.

Yet that still makes this a district that could be successfully contested by a Democratic challenger. And who is Cook’s Democratic challenger this year? It’s Ashley Brown “Brownie” Futrell, a former newspaper publisher. Is Futrell a credible candidate? As of the end of the last financial quarter, his campaign reported having about $36,000 cash on hand, compared to the incumbent’s $56,000, so he’ll have the financial resources to be competitive.

Playing in Cook’s favor is the fact that the district is trending Republican, with old-school Democrats increasingly falling out of favor with their national party and voting GOP up and down the ballot. In-migration from the Virginia Beach area is also bringing in Republican voters.

Possibly boosting the Democrat’s chances is the combination of Donald Trump at the top of the ticket and the HB 2 issue. Although most of Eastern North Carolina has paid little attention to the controversial law, the 1st Senate District could be different as it contains Dare County, a tourist haven. Senator Cook voted for HB 2 and he could pay a price in Dare if voters there are concerned about the law’s impact on the tourism industry.

And then there’s Donald Trump. If his campaign turns out to be a disaster, incumbent Republicans in competitive districts like Cook will have to fight to win reelection. Still, this is an increasingly tough district for Democrats, so the incumbent should be favored here.

District Rating: Likely Republican

2014 Result
53.5% Cook
46.5% White

Voter Registration
Democrat – 44.7%
Unaffiliated – 28.1%
Republican – 26.9%

White – 75.7%
Black – 21.1%
Other – 3.2%

Results in Other Elections
2012 President
55.7% Romney
43.2% Obama

2012 Governor
54.4% McCrory
42.5% Dalton

2010 Senate
59.6% Burr
38.1% Marshall