The only Hispanic legislator in North Carolina lost his seat. These candidates won.

Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi
Kaitlin McKeown/kmckeown@newsobserver.com

Ricky Hurtado, a Democratic incumbent, lost his Election Day bid to represent one of the state’s most competitive N.C. House districts to Republican Steve Ross.

With his loss, the legislature next year looks likely to have no Hispanic representatives in a state where over 10.7% of the population identifies as Hispanic.

Proportional representation in the General Assembly would mean 17 or 18 Hispanic members among the state’s 170 legislators.

Hurtado, a first-term representative, had defeated longtime incumbent Ross in a close race in 2020, becoming the only Hispanic legislator in the state.

This year in his reelection bid in Alamance County, Hurtado, the son of immigrants from El Salvador, got 48.79% of votes, compared to Ross’ 51.21% votes. Hurtado fell short by 658 votes, according to unofficial results.

For Hurtado, the lack of Hispanic political representation despite the large population means “we have a lot of blind spots as a community, as a state when it comes to the unique challenges and opportunities that come with serving this community,” he previously told The News & Observer.

Hurtado also said that being the only Hispanic legislator often meant that when Hispanic community members went to the legislative building, if at all, they’d be immediately pointed over to his office regardless of whether they were in his district. He said that’s “a disservice.”

Following a request for comment, Hurtado said he could not talk until next week.

Asked why Hurtado and Hispanic candidates did not do better this election cycle, Kerry Haynie, chair of political science at Duke University, said during a panel discussion that he believed there needed to be more Hispanic candidates and more efforts to recruit Hispanics into politics.

Asher Hildebrand, an associate professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy, agreed.

“There has not been enough of an effort to bring this major, rapidly growing population in North Carolina into the candidate recruitment process by both parties,” Hildebrand said. “It’s not simply that the Latinx candidates are failing or falling short, it’s that we need more, we need to have a larger sampling size.”

“Ricky Hurtado ran a very impressive and spirited campaign two years ago,” he said. “He was at doors, helping people with concerns during COVID, really got a following with a lot of organizing in the state. That made him a pretty big target.”

Apart from Hurtado, across the state with over 2,000 races on the ballot, 27 other Hispanic candidates ran in the midterm elections. Of those, the majority ran in board of education races, a few for county commissioners and two to serve as district court judges. Seven ran for seats in the N.C. House of Representatives.

Of all those who ran for the legislature, none appears to have won, with one race yet to be called by The Associated Press. That is the House District 73 race in Cabarrus County between Democrat Diamond Staton-Williams and Republican Brian Echevarria, a Hispanic candidate. Staton-Williams has the upper hand in votes and appears to have won, in a race that could prove pivotal as Republicans’ last chance for a supermajority in the state House, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Across all 27 races where Hispanics ran, a few won, according to unofficial results. Those were:

  • Democrat Franklin Gomez Flores won his reelection bid to serve as the Chatham County Board of Commissioners’ District 5 representative.

  • Republican Carlos Jané won an uncontested race to serve as an NC District Court judge in District 22B, Seat 6.

  • Democrat Susan Rodriguez-McDowell will serve as Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners’ District 6 representative.

  • Democrat Cecilia Oseguera won an uncontested race to serve as District Court judge in District 26, Seat 18.

  • Republican Tim Ivey will serve on the Scotland County Board of Commissioners.

  • Republican Sandra Greene won the Union County Board of Education District 4 race.

  • Christina Jones won the City of Raleigh City Council District E race.

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