ROCKINGHAM — Richard Hudson could once again represent Richmond County — or at least part of it.
Hudson, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, announced Thursday that he would be filing to run in the newly reconfigured 9th Congressional District.
The most recent map, drawn by “special masters,” has the 9th District’s western border around Hamlet, along U.S. 74, and appears to stretch north along N.C. 177 to Hoffman and Derby, near the intersection with the Montgomery and Moore county lines.
The rest of the district includes Scotland, Hoke, Lee, Chatham and Randolph counties in addition to northwest Cumberland and western Harnett counties — but not Hudson’s home county of Cabarrus.
Judging from the press release, Hudson wants to stay in the district with one of the world’s largest military bases.
"As Fort Bragg's Congressman, I have a proven track record as a conservative who knows how to get things done for our community," Hudson said in the release. "You can count on me to stand up to the mandates, threats to our Second Amendment, and big government socialist policies hurting our economy and your family. I look forward to remaining Fort Bragg's Congressman and again earning the support of the people of the new 9th District."
Hudson has represented, at some point, eight of the nine counties in the new district, with Chatham being the exception, according to the congressman's office. Hudson also had an office in Richmond County at one time before maps were redrawn in 2016.
The new maps were approved Wednesday by a three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals, which includes Richmond County Superior Court Judge Dawn Layton, a former assistant district attorney who was appointed to the bench in 2019 by Gov. Roy Cooper. She is the only Democrat on the panel.
But, instead of accepting the districts proposed by the General Assembly, the panel went with “interim” congressional maps drawn by former state Supreme Court Justices Bob Orr and Bob Edmonds, along with former UNC System president Thomas Ross.
While the eastern strip of Richmond County is in the 9th District, the rest of the county is in the 8th District with Anson, Union, Montgomery, Stanly, Rowan and Davidson counties, as well as eastern Cabarrus.
Congressman Dan Bishop, who currently represents the 9th District, said a statement on Twitter Wednesday that he was “evaluating” whether he would run for the 8th or 9th.
The current district comprises Richmond, Anson, Scotland, Robeson, Hoke and Union counties — as well as parts of Mecklenburg and Moore counties.
Bishop also alluded to a possible statewide judicial run.
Before the original maps were shot down by the N.C. Supreme Court, Bishop told the RO that he had planned to move into what was then District 8 because it included 85% of the constituents he has represented and interacted with the past two years.
The RO asked Hudson’s office if he planned to move from his home in Concord to the district he plans to represent, but there was no response by the time of this writing.
Neither Hudson nor Bishop have to move, since a quirk in the U.S. Constitution doesn’t require congressmen to live in the district they represent.
In the Republican primary for the 2019 special election, which Bishop won, half of the 10 candidates lived outside the district.
Richmond County Elections Director Connie Kelly said this was the first time in her 29 years on the job that the county has been split by congressional districts.
Filing was halted after three days in December by the N.C. Supreme Court because of lawsuits.
Multiple appeals were filed following Wednesday’s ruling, but the Carolina Journal reports that the court rejected them.
