Result
Rep. Mitchell Setzer (R-Catawba) won reelection in North Carolina House District 89 on Tuesday, Nov. 3, defeating Democrat Robert “Spider” Thompson with 67.5% of the vote. Unofficial results show Setzer with 23,953 votes to Thompson’s 11,530, or 32.5%.
Setzer, who has held the seat since 1999, beat Lisa Deaton Koperski in the March 3 Republican primary with 86.2% of the vote. Two years ago he won 76% of the vote against Democrat Greg Cranford. His new term begins Friday, Jan. 1, 2027.
Candidates and Platforms
Setzer is vice president of his family’s business, Smith Setzer & Sons, and co-chairs the House Select Committee on Property Tax Reduction and Reform. The panel recommended House Bill 1089, a constitutional amendment he sponsored that requires the legislature to limit local property tax increases. Voters approved that amendment Nov. 3 with about 60% of the vote.
Thompson, an educator and coach who spent 36 years in North Carolina classrooms, campaigned on public school funding, health care for all, hunger, affordable housing and disability and elder rights. In a WSOC-TV candidate guide, he criticized Setzer’s votes to expand private school vouchers to families of any income and argued the property tax amendment would shift costs to working families through higher sales taxes. Setzer did not respond to the station’s guide.
District and Chamber
District 89 covers parts of Catawba and Iredell counties in the Hickory and Statesville region, stretching from Cooksville to Troutman. Statewide, Democrats won 71 of the House’s 120 seats in unofficial results, flipping the chamber Republicans had controlled since 2011 and falling one seat short of a three-fifths supermajority.
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