From unhoused to House rep: The unlikely winner of NC-14

LaKesha Womack, the Democratic nominee in North Carolina's 14th Congressional District, has said she became unhoused with her young son after moving to North Carolina in 2016. She had a medical emergency related to her Type 1 diabetes and was left hospitalized in intensive care. Like many Americans, she was one major medical catastrophe away from financial devastation, and that's what happened to her.

Her campaign raised $59,000, while her opponent, Rep. Tim Moore (R), raised about $2.09 million through mid-October, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Before serving one term in Congress, Moore served five terms as speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives.

With all precincts reporting, Womack led Moore by 6,415 votes out of 288,361 cast — 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent. Moore had won the same seat by about 16 points two years earlier, making his defeat one of the cycle’s biggest House upsets, said WFAE.

Womack went from being unhoused to serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.

According to local results, Womack ran a stronger-than-expected campaign, while Moore lost badly in Mecklenburg County precincts and failed to build enough of a margin in the district’s more rural western counties.

Still, he claimed he was running as if he was losing. He knocked doors talking to voters "even though I probably wouldn't have to if I didn't want to," WFAE quoted him saying.

Moore's own role in re-drawing his congressional district mid-decade also became a political vulnerability. Democrats framed the race as a rejection of gerrymandering and entrenched power.

He was easily lumped in with the "establishment Republicans" who had been in office for years and done little to help people afford their daily expenses.

Meanwhile, Womack described her candidacy as proof of resilience: “I think this is the American dream that within 10 years, you know, I can go from being virtually homeless to running for Congress," she said.

“I can’t preach about people being homeless if I’m not willing to advocate for policies that will actually solve that,” she told WFAE.

Womack was successful in positioning herself as a pragmatic problem-solver instead of a purely partisan political actor. She said she would not support a bill merely because a Democrat sponsored it or oppose one merely because a Republican did, and she emphasized that “good policy should matter more than political loyalty," Axios reported.