Result
Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch (D-Wake) won reelection in North Carolina Senate District 17 on Tuesday, Nov. 3, defeating Republican Shirley Johnson with 72.7% of the vote. Unofficial results show Batch with 61,777 votes to Johnson’s 21,424, or 25.2%, while Libertarian Patrick Bowersox took 2.1%.
Batch was unopposed in the March 3 Democratic primary, and Johnson won the Republican primary with 90.1% over Sarah Al-Baghdadi. Batch, who lost a 2020 House reelection bid before Gov. Roy Cooper appointed her to this seat in January 2021, won with 51.8% in 2022 and 74.4% in 2024 against only a Libertarian opponent. Her new term begins Friday, Jan. 1, 2027.
Candidates and Platforms
Batch, an attorney and former social worker, has led Senate Democrats since 2025 after serving one term in the state House. She said after the election that she wants the legislature to focus on making health care more affordable, addressing housing affordability and restoring academic freedom in higher education.
Johnson, a Cary consultant making her first run for office, said she spent more than a decade on the Illinois State Senate staff. She favored cutting taxes, including eliminating or sharply reducing property taxes on primary residences, and proposed funding teacher raises by cutting duplicative spending, according to her INDY Week questionnaire. She also backed school choice and tying data center incentives to lasting jobs and disclosure of energy and water use.
District and Chamber
District 17 covers much of southern Wake County. Statewide, Republicans are set to hold a 26-24 Senate majority in unofficial results, losing their veto-proof supermajority, with one race possibly headed to a recount.
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