Mark Walker drops out of NC governor’s race to run for Congress in newly drawn district

Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker is ending his campaign for North Carolina governor and will run for another term in Congress, he announced Wednesday.

In a statement, Walker said he will seek another term in the U.S. House from North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District, which he previously represented in Congress for three terms starting in 2015 before deciding in 2020 to not run for reelection.

Walker, a former Baptist pastor from Greensboro, acknowledged that he faced an uphill battle in the GOP gubernatorial primary, but said that since a new map for North Carolina’s 14 U.S. House seats was released a week ago, he had been “overwhelmed” by the encouragement he’s received to run for another term in Congress.

In addition to sheriffs and state lawmakers, Walker said his bid to return to the U.S. House has the support of over 40 members of Congress, including Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson, who was elected on Wednesday to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

Explaining why he wanted to return to Congress, Walker said there was a “radical movement designed to steal the very soul of our nation—including the hearts and minds of an entire generation,” and that it was crucial for the state to “have representation of leaders who live out conservative principles everyday being grounded in a genuine faith in our Creator, God Almighty.”

Under the new map that is now law after it cleared a final vote in the N.C. House on Wednesday afternoon, the 6th district would include a portion of southwestern Guilford County, a part of Forsyth County, most of it in the east, all of Davidson, Davie and Rowan counties, and part of Cabarrus County.

The new boundaries for NC-6 will make it much tougher for U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, the Democrat who has served the district since 2021, to win reelection. Meanwhile, another candidate on the Republican side, Christian Castelli, entered the race on Thursday, according to WGHP. Castelli unsuccessfully ran against Manning in 2022.

While in the U.S. House, Walker served as chair of the Republican Study Committee, and vice chair of the House Republican Conference, a high-ranking leadership position he held from 2019 to 2021. He was succeeded as vice chair by Johnson, the new House speaker.

In 2022, Walker unsuccessfully ran for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Richard Burr. The nomination was ultimately won by former U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, who defeated former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley in the general election.

Walker launched his gubernatorial campaign in May, pitching himself as the best candidate Republicans could put forward to run for the state’s highest office and take on Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic frontrunner. Over the last few months, Walker took aim at Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican frontrunner, and criticized him for antisemitic remarks and comments that Walker said amounted to Holocaust denial.

Walker was also a vocal critic of a contentious move GOP legislative leaders in Raleigh considered this summer to include a gambling proposal, which would approve four new non-tribal casinos, in the state budget.

In August, as budget negotiations continued to drag on, Walker joined residents of Rockingham County, one of the counties that was floated as a possible location, for a press conference at the legislature to call on GOP lawmakers to reject the proposal to put casinos in the budget.

The proposal ultimately didn’t advance, and GOP leaders shelved the casino expansion for the time being.