North Carolina’s First Congressional District still belongs to G.K. Butterfield.

According to the unofficial results from Tuesday’s general election, Butterfield, a Democrat, earned a sixth term in Congress by easily defeating Republican challenger H. Powell Dew Jr.

The tally showed Butterfield with 237,779 votes (68.60% of the ballots cast in this race).

Dew was named on 100,585 ballots while Libertarian candidate J.J. Summerell received 8,259 votes.

Butterfield swept all 14 counties in the First District. That broad area includes all four of the Roanoke-Chowan area counties where Butterfield won over Dew and Summerell by the following margins:

Bertie: 5,995 / 2,819 / 101

Gates: 2,575 / 2,471 / 119

Hertford: 7,051 / 2,643 / 116

Northampton: 6,330 / 3,105 / 120

Butterfield initially gained the seat following a special election held in 2004 to replace retiring Congressman Frank Ballance. He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and became its chairman in 2015.

In other election news, three local incumbents, all Democrats, representing the Roanoke-Chowan area in the North Carolina General Assembly were unopposed and will return to office.

In NC House District 5, Representative Howard J. Hunter III of Ahoskie received 25,658 votes across his five-county district. That county-by-county breakdown is Bertie (6,749 votes), Gates (3,649), Hertford (8,239) and Pasquotank (7,021).

House District 29 Representative Michael H. Wray of Gaston was named on 28,986 ballots. That district encompasses Halifax and Northampton counties where Wray received 21,231 and 7,755 votes respectively.

In NC Senate District 3, Erica Smith-Ingram of Gaston earned a second term by collecting 57,135 votes. Her eight-county district includes three of the four Roanoke-Chowan area counties. There she collected 6,385 votes in Bertie; 7,458 in Hertford; and 6,998 in Northampton.

All District 6 (Bertie, Halifax, Hertford and Northampton) Judges ran unopposed and earned four-year terms. They were Chief District Court Judge Brenda Branch (38,010 votes), along with District Court Judges Teresa Robinson Freeman (37,205), Vershenia Ballance Moody (37,313), and Turner Stephenson (37,559).

Statewide judicial winners were:

Mike Morgan for NC Supreme Court; and

Phil Berger Jr., Hunter Murphy, Bob Hunter, Richard Dietz, and Valerie Zachary, all for NC Court of Appeals.

Turnout was high across North Carolina with 4,715,882 of the state’s 6,914,248 registered voters (68.21%) casting ballots.