Rep. Mark Harris, a Republican, kept his seat in the 8th Congressional District on Tuesday by 5,179 votes, while the district's Mecklenburg County precincts, from south Charlotte to Matthews and Mint Hill, voted for his Democratic challenger, Colby Watson.
Union County, the district's largest by votes cast, made the difference. Harris won it 53,138 to 46,197, and won Stanly County by nearly 9,000 votes. He also carried Montgomery, Richmond and Robeson counties.
Watson carried Mecklenburg 33,301 to 23,056, or 58.6 percent, and also won Cabarrus, Anson and Scotland counties.
Districtwide, Harris received 147,094 votes, or 50.4 percent, to Watson's 141,915, with Green Party candidate Bo Whitehead at 2,890, according to the State Board of Elections' unofficial count. Because it is a federal office, the state board is to make the result official at its canvass on Tuesday, Nov. 24.
Before Congress, Harris was senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Charlotte for more than a decade and served as president of the North Carolina Baptist Convention, according to his House biography.