Davis, Buckhout each raise about $1M in Q2

US Rep. Don Davis, D-NC1, is neck and neck in second quarter campaign finance with his Republican challenger, Laurie Buckhout. Both candidates have raised about $1.05 million, according to Federal Election Commission campaign finance reports. 

Davis has about $3.6 million in cash on hand, and Buckhout has about $1.8 million at the close of the reporting period, according to FEC reports. 

“Colonel Buckhout’s second-quarter report reflects a campaign built by meeting voters across eastern North Carolina, not working the Democrat fundraising circuit,” Stephen Gallagher, spokesman for Buckhout’s campaign, told the Carolina Journal. “By contrast, nearly 90% of Don Davis’s fundraising dollars came from outside North Carolina, with major support from California, New York, and Massachusetts. Colonel Buckhout spent the quarter traveling every corner of eastern North Carolina. Don Davis spent his courting out-of-state donors and the radical left.”

The fundraising pattern has shifted from first quarter, when Davis well outpaced Buckhout.

Laurie Buckhout, won her five-way Republican primary in March, with 39.52% of the vote. 

“Buckhout keeping pace with Davis is not as surprising as it may seem at first glance,” Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “Davis is a moderate. While that helps him with support in northeastern North Carolina, it does not endear him to Democratic donors, who tend to back more hard-left candidates with their dollars.”

In addition to winning a five-way Republican primary, Buckhout also won the primary for the same district in 2024. Buckhout is a retired Army colonel, combat commander, and business owner, and has also served in the Trump administration as acting secretary of defense for cyber policy from March to September of 2025. 

During the 2024 general election, Buckhout lost with 47.8% of the vote, or a margin of just over 6,000 votes; and Davis received 49.5%. 

State lawmakers redrew and approved new congressional maps during the 2025 long session of the North Carolina General Assembly. The new maps introduced significant changes to the district’s political makeup, improving the Republican Party’s competitiveness.

As part of the redraw, Wilson, Wayne, Greene, and Lenoir counties were moved into the Third Congressional District. Craven, Beaufort, Pamlico, Carteret, Hyde, and Dare counties were added to the First District. 

Davis’s individual contributions have been primarily from out-of-state donors for the third quarter in a row, as reflected in FEC reports. Q2 2026 was 88.7% out-of-state and 11.3% in-state. The out-of-state percentage for the second quarter was the lowest of all three quarters. In the first quarter of 2026 (pre-primary and post-primary) out-of-state contributions were at 94.2% out of state vs 5.8% in state. The fourth quarter of 2025 reflected the same pattern in in-state vs out-of-state contributions. 

Between April and June of 2026, Davis’s individual contributions totaled $610,634.90, but only $68,765.08 (11.3%) came from North Carolina, according to Reilly Richardson, Southern Regional Press Secretary at the National Republican Congressional Committee. In out-of-state contributions, California leads with $192,547.09 (31.5%), New York is second with $85,771.43 (14.0%), and Massachusetts is third with $74,910.40 (12.3%). 

Davis’ campaign did not respond to the Carolina Journal’s request for comment.

“Davis, Buckhout each raise about $1M in Q2” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.