2026 Elections

Recently we have talked a bit about critical thinking and about evaluating information that is right in front of us.

The folks at The Downballot do good work in general, but I thought maybe we could look at this one together and talk about what jumps out at each of us as we read this.  I am willing to bet that a few things will jump out at all of us and that there will be things that others catch that we do not.

We talk about how some people vote on “vibes”.  I don’t think I am one of those people, but now I’m not sure because anything i know about this race comes from this article, and if I had to vote in this race, I think my further research might be influenced by a few things in this article.

Morning Digest: The first high-profile primary test for House Democrats looms next week

NC-04

Rep. Valerie Foushee will square off next week against Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam in a closely-watched rematch that will be one of the first high-profile tests of the resiliency of House Democratic incumbents facing energetic primary challengers.

When they first met in 2022, Foushee won a previous incarnation of North Carolina’s safely blue 4th Congressional District after defeating Allam 46-37 for the Democratic nod.

Foushee, the first Black woman to represent the rival college towns of Chapel Hill and Durham in Congress, seemed to be in for a long career after easily securing a second term without primary opposition in 2024.

But Allam, who would be the first Muslim person to serve North Carolina in the House, announced a rematch in December, arguing that Foushee had done little to help her constituents.

Much has changed since their initial matchup, not least the intense anger many Democratic voters now feel toward Democrats in Congress. But the specific contours of this year’s race are also very different.

Four years ago, Foushee enjoyed a huge financial advantage over Allam thanks to heavier outlays from third parties. Much of the pro-Foushee spending came from groups aligned with the hawkish pro-Israel group AIPAC and the crypto sector.

This time, though, voters are seeing far more messaging on behalf of Allam than they are for the congresswoman. The local alt-weekly INDY Week notes that Allam has benefited from over $1 million in outside expenditures, which is roughly three times larger than the amount spent to aid Foushee as of Sunday evening.

About half of the pro-Allam spending has come from American Priorities, a new group that formed earlier this month. While the outfit hasn’t said what its specific policy goals are, NBC writes that it intends to “counter AIPAC spending in Democratic primaries.”

American Priorities’ opening ad names AIPAC as one of “the big guys” that has “bought and paid for” Congress, though it’s not the only group it highlights. The narrator also says that Foushee has received support from “big banks, big pharma, big tech, crypto,” and “even corporations working with ICE.”

The spot goes on to praise Allam for having “fought for healthcare” and for earning an endorsement from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Other pro-Allam organizations like Leaders We Deserve, the group founded by activist David Hogg, have used a similar message to argue that “Valerie Foushee only works for the big guys” while Allam “works for the people.”

The incumbent, by contrast, has gotten almost $300,000 in assistance from Jobs and Democracy PAC, which is linked to an organization funded by the AI company Anthropic. Anthropic, CNBC recently noted, has been one of the rare major players in the industry to call for more regulation. Foushee has also gotten $100,000 in help from an organization allied with the Congressional Black Caucus.

The entities that spent heavily for her in 2022, however, have remained on the sidelines.

Foushee, though, is arguing that voters should now be asking who is pouring in money to oust her on March 3.

“An out-of-state PAC is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to unseat me,” she said in a video responding to Leaders We Deserve’s offensive. “And why is this PAC running ads against me funded by billionaires?”

Foushee singled out one billionaire in particular: venture capitalist Ron Conway, who contributed $500,000 to Hogg’s group during the last election cycle. The American Prospect says that Conway has not yet donated to the organization for the 2026 elections.

Foushee has also sought to distance herself from AIPAC. Her team told INDY Week last summer that she would not accept contributions from the organization going forward.

The congresswoman has, however, struggled to raise money from donors to get her message out.

And despite waiting to announce her second campaign in December, Allam ended 2025 with more cash on hand than the two-term incumbent. Updated campaign finance reports released Thursday show that Allam has continued to outraise Fousheeduring the new year.

Foushee, though, believes she can prevail thanks to her support from prominent North Carolina Democrats.

In her recent video, she highlighted endorsements from Gov. Josh Stein; former Gov. Roy Cooper, who is running for the U.S. Senate this year; and former Rep. David Price, whose decision not to seek reelection in 2022 paved the way for Foushee’s own election to Congress.

Foushee also argues that Allam and her allies have it wrong when they try to portray her as insufficiently liberal.

“I was a progressive before she was born,” Foushee, 69, told the News & Observer of her 32-year-old opponent.

The second Foushee-Allam primary will also be different than their first bout because the 4th District itself is different.

Republicans passed a new gerrymander ahead of the 2024 elections that moved more than a third of Foushee’s constituents to other constituencies and replaced them with other North Carolinians. (The GOP’s latest gerrymander did not impact the 4th.)

One of the new communities that’s now part of the district is the town of Apex, which is near the proposed location for a 190-acre data center dubbed the New Hill Digital Campus. The growth of data centers and the ensuing backlash against them has become a major election issue in races across the country, and the primary for the 4th District is one such contest.

Foushee has not spoken out either in support of or against the New Hill project. She instead told attendees at a recent candidate forum, “While we’re talking about how we set up guardrails, what we make by way of framework for AI has to be where data centers can or should be located. What I don’t want Congress to do is to preempt what a local government decides for itself.”

Allam, by contrast, has made her opposition to the plan a centerpiece of her campaign.

“I’ve been hearing from hundreds of residents across this district with concerns about AI data centers,” she told Prospect. “I am proud to have rejected donations from the AI lobby and the tech industry. People will know that I’m working for them.”

No one has released any polling of the race, but observers across the country—including some of Foushee’s colleagues—will be closely watching the result next week for early clues about what’s in store for Democrats as the 2026 primary season starts.

I originally thought that I would start by mentioning things that jumped out at me, but upon further reflection, I think it’s probably better if we start with a blank slate.

The full article is up top.  I hope you’ll read it and then share your thoughts. Who knows, this might be illuminating when it comes to our own biases.

My fear after reading this article is that people’s opinions can be easily manipulated by the framing offered in an article, without any preference being stated out loud – because it seems to me that there’s a lot of signaling in this article that comes across without ostensibly having offered any opinion either way.

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