2026 NC Fourth District Primary: Road to Rematch

Nida Allam, the vice chair of the Durham Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), has announced her campaign for the North Carolina's Fourth Congressional District on December 11, 2025. Her opponent will be Rep. Valerie Foushee, a corporate-backed Democratic incumbent. The race between Allam and Foushee is a rematch of the 2022 primary, which Foushee won. This article lays out a timeline of events related to the Fourth District and both candidates that have occurred in the three and a half years since the initial contest.

May 2022: I’ll Buy the First Round

In May 2022, Valerie Foushee won the Democratic primary for North Carolina’s Fourth District against Nida Allam. The race determined that Foushee would succeed Rep. David Price, who held the seat for 30 years. Foushee prevailed in Orange, Alamance, Person, and Granville counties. Allam won in Durham County and the town of Chapel Hill [1].

Allam had endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. As a result, the race was seen as part of the larger competition between the progressive and establishment wings of the Democratic Party.

The cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as pro-Israel organizations such as AIPAC and DMFI, spent around $3.5 million to support Foushee. That made the Democratic primary the most expensive in North Carolina history. In the last weeks of the race, money from Foushee’s sponsors poured into television ads, digital ads, and printed mailers in Alamance, Granville, and Person counties.

January 2023: Exit SBF

Sam Bankman-Fried provided Foushee with about $1 million in outside spending during the 2022 primary. Now imprisoned in California, Bankman-Fried was the billionaire owner of a cryptocurrency exchange company called FTX. Using Protect Our Future PAC and other entities, Bankman-Fried gave around $100 million to Democrats and Republicans during the 2022 election cycle. He was seeking support for FTX in particular and the cryptocurrency sector in general.

Ads purchased by Bankman-Fried appeared on screens across the Fourth District. A soothing voice let the viewer know that, “We can trust Valerie Foushee to stand up for us in Congress, because that’s what she’s always done” [2].

The Assembly interviewed Ray La Raja, a political scientist, on Bankman-Fried’s approach in donating to Democrats. La Raja said, “If you want to do well with the [Democratic Party] leadership, form a super PAC and make sure that people they like get elected” [3].

Bankman-Fried was arrested in January 2023 after FTX was exposed as a massive fraud. Prosecutors uncovered that he used $8 billion in customer deposits as a slush fund for risky investments, luxurious living, and political donations. Foushee’s donor was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison.

September 2023: Sanitation Workers Stand Down

City workers in Durham dealt with real terms pay cuts for two years after COVID struck. In September 2023, solid waste workers organized with UE 150 responded with a ‘stand down’ action that lasted several days. The dispute ended when the Durham city council paid out $6.5 million in bonuses, marking a period of increased political strength for the union. City workers did not lose their momentum after the stand down. Gaining support through political activism and public appeals, UE 150 went on to emerge 2024 and 2025 budget cycles with significant raises for city workers [4, 5].

However, the workers still have unmet demands. In 2025, UE 150 could not get the votes to reclassify solid waste workers, modify the Living Wage Ordinance to pay workers at least $25 per hour, or calculate annual steps in a fairer way for lower paid employees.

If Allam is able to sway one of her allies on Durham city council - Javiera Caballero, Matt Kopac, and Carl Rist - to back the union’s demands in 2026, it could win support from city workers. It could also spark pro-Allam enthusiasm among many University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate workers, who are also organized with UE 150.

November 2023: JVP Blocks the Freeway

The Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip had been underway for a month when Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) blocked the Durham Freeway on November 4. The goal was to get Foushee on the phone. The Jewish activists wanted to hear the word ‘ceasefire’.

Protestors sat on the road during rush hour for more than two hours while a larger crowd of supporters watched from the Mangum Street overpass. Durham police eventually arrested four of the activists but did not escalate tensions or endanger the protestors. Then-Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson said that he viewed the Jewish activists as “human speed bumps” who were “protesting for terrorists” [6]. Many months later, Robinson was found to have identified himself in online spaces as a Nazi.

By the time JVP blocked the Durham Freeway, Israeli airstrikes had already killed 9,000 Palestinians, including 3,500 children. Six thousand more people would be killed by Israel before Foushee signed onto a letter calling for a ceasefire on December 1.

Months earlier, in an October 20 Indyweek op-ed, Allam had written, "It's time to call for an immediate ceasefire, and an end to the military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank".

March 2024: Visit With Bibi

Foushee traveled to Israel in March 2024 as part of an AIPAC delegation to meet with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. She was joined by former Rep. Kathy Manning, now DMFI board chair, and several other members of Congress. AIPAC and DMFI spent around $2.5 million to support Foushee in the 2022 primary.

During the meeting, Netanyahu thanked the “long-time friends of Israel” for their support and discussed his intentions to bomb Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen. In a segment of the meeting posted to YouTube, the Prime Minister assures Foushee and the other lawmakers of the toughness of Israeli soldiers, telling an anecdote about how he met amputee soldiers in the hospital who were eager to return to service in the Gaza [7, timestamp 3:00].

In November 2024, eight months after Foushee’s visit, Netanyahu was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The indictment alleged that the Prime Minister had used starvation as a weapon of war and intentionally targeted a civilian population.

September 2024: Payment in Lieu of Taxes

The ‘Duke Respect Durham’ campaign launched on September 14 to pressure Duke University to make payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to the local community. As an educational intuition, Duke is exempt from paying most property taxes, despite its $12.3 billion endowment. The Duke Respect Durham kickoff included speeches from Keith Bullard from the Union of Southern Service Workers, Donald Quick from UE 150, Christy Patterson from the Durham Association of Educators, Nate Baker from Durham city council, and Nida Allam from the BOCC [8].

All Ivy League universities make some form of PILOT to their local communities in order to improve what are often extremely unequal ‘town-gown’ relationships. For example, the University of Pennsylvania has agreed to make annual payments of $10 million to Philadelphia public schools for a period of ten years.

The Duke Respect Durham launch was a rare collaboration between Allam and Baker, who belong to rival progressive blocs in city politics. The factions arose, in part, from city council disputes over annexation and rezoning votes as well as treatment of Durham city workers.

In May 2025, Duke Respect Durham morphed into a larger campaign called ‘Durham Rising’. Three of the five proposals made by the new initiative call for a PILOT agreement. Durham Rising added new partner organizations such as Duke Graduate Student Union, Siembra NC, and Durham for All.

Durham’s PILOT campaigns have begun to bear fruit. The Duke Chronicle published an article in Oct. 2025 with the headline “Duke plans more investment in Durham, distances efforts from Durham Rising campaign”.

December 2024: Carrboro Sues

On December 4, the town of Carrboro sued Duke Energy, the North Carolina utility monopoly, alleging that the company’s decades-long campaign of deception about climate change has caused millions of dollars in damage from floods and other extreme weather. According to the Greenhouse 100 Polluters Index, Duke Energy is the third-worst emitter of greenhouse gases in the United States. Carrboro’s lawsuit claims that Duke Energy has known about the threat of climate change since 1968, when the issue was spotlighted at an industry conference [9].

“For far too long, corporations like Duke Energy have prioritized their executives’ personal fortunes at the expense of our communities, our planet, and our collective wellbeing,” said Carrboro Mayor Pro Tem Danny Nowell during a press conference about the lawsuit [10].

Nowell is a two-term town councilor in Carrboro and was endorsed by Triangle Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in both of his races. The only other DSA-endorsed official in the Triangle is Nate Baker, a member of the Durham city council. Allam may seek the endorsement of Triangle DSA in the Fourth District primary, although the group is known to be selective with endorsements. Foushee is too corporate-aligned to be considered.

January 2025: Cop City

On January 13, the BOCC in Durham voted 3 to 2 to approve an $18 million expansion of the sheriff’s training center on Electra Road. The funds will renovate an existing firing range and add a new 10,000-square-foot building to the site.

The sheriff’s project was on track to pass unanimously until a small group of activists brought the issue to public notice. On November 12, around 30 protesters interrupted a BOCC meeting to oppose the 'cop city'. Nida Allam, the board chair, delayed discussion of the issue to a January 6 work session. There had not been a single newspaper article about the $18 million project before the November 12 protest.

Groups such as 'Durham Stop Cop City' wanted an expansion of Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Teams (HEART) instead of the training center. Established by Durham city government in 2022, HEART sends unarmed social work specialists to some 911 calls. On January 2, the People’s Alliance said it would be “premature” to approve the sheriff's project without also expanding the HEART program to Durham County and Durham Public Schools (DPS) [11].

When the BOCC approved the funds for ‘cop city’ on January 13, HEART expansion was not included. Allam voted against the training center, citing the upswell of community opposition.

April 2025: Pittsboro Town Hall

Foushee held her first in-person town hall more than two years in Congress. Seventy attendees were admitted to the Pittsboro event, despite additional space in the venue and a long wait list.

In the Chatham County Courthouse on April 22, Foushee discussed how right-wing authoritarians are seeking to “target our rights, gut governmental protections, defund public education, criminalize immigrants and asylum seekers, weaken worker protections, and slash social safety net programs” [12].

She was joined by Rep. Robert Reives. The minority leader of the NC House of Representatives showed a keener eye for the nation’s crisis when he said,

“There’s one group of people in the entire country who are trying to stop everybody else from achieving an American dream, and that are the wealthy billionaires that have taken over your government … Somehow, they have convinced themselves that, God help us, if you get an education, if you’re healthy and you get a chance to work, that somehow they’re going to lose that billion dollars before they die.”

In the first half of 2025, Foushee took campaign donations from corporations owned by centibillionaires such as Warren Buffett (Norfolk Southern), Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin), and the Walton family (Walmart).

August 2025: Carrboro Town Hall

Foushee held another town hall on August 5 in Carrboro. A constituent asked about her March 2024 meeting with Netanyahu. In part, Foushee said, “We also shared that, at that time, Congress had the ability to appropriate or not appropriate funds — and I think we made it very clear that, at least the representatives in that room, would not vote for any more appropriation to go out” [13].

In April 2024, Foushee voted for the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which sent around $15 billion in direct military assistance to Israel. All the other representatives who went on the trip also voted in favor.

Foushee also said, “You’ll find in my record that I have not voted against the people of Gaza, or the people of Ukraine, or the people of Sudan - which I never hear any of you speak about.”

Sudan activism in the Triangle is led by anti-imperialist groups that are also supportive of Palestine. For example, the Triangle chapter Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) often discusses Sudan, Congo, and other conflicts at peace rallies at Raleigh’s Moore Square. In May 2025, PSL and Green Door Garden put together a 5K in Wake Forest and donated the proceeds to Hope and Haven Refugees, a nonprofit that serves Sudanese refugees [14].

August 2025: Heritage Square Rezoning

The Sterling Bay development company withdrew a request to rezone the vacant Heritage Square shopping mall on August 4.  The company had proposed a high-rise building with luxury apartments, lab space, and retail. Many residents of Hayti district, which is historically Black, wanted more input into Sterling Bay’s plans and feared that the project would lead to gentrification.

On August 5, the advocacy group Hayti Reborn said in a statement, “We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep saying it: Hayti is not opposed to development. We’re opposed to any development that excludes, exploits, or erases us”. In an interview with ABC11, Rev. Julian Pridgen, pastor at St. Mark AME Zion Church, sounded a similar note. He said, "It is just difficult for me to accept rezoning this property for more luxury apartments when we have homeless people sleeping on our front porch" [15].

In the early 20th century, the Hayti district in Durham a robust, self-sufficient economy. The district was home hundreds of Black-owned businesses, including the NC Mutual Life Insurance Company. Durham labelled Hayti as “blighted” in 1958. Federal laws and funding were then used to demolish about 4,000 houses and 500 businesses. Across a 200-acre area, about 95 percent of buildings were destroyed. Over the course of a 14-year period, the Black population in the area was reduced by half. By 1974, the Durham Freeway had been built over Hayti’s northern section.

In Durham, about 31 percent of households are ‘housing cost-burdened’, spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. Among renters earning less than 50 percent AMI, the figure jumps to 77 percent. Local governments have a difficult time solving the housing crisis due to lack of capital, the influence of the real estate and construction sectors, and laws such as North Carolina's rent control ban, the state's Umstead Act, and the federal Faircloth Amendment.

The August 4 city council meeting on the Heritage Square rezoning began with an interruption. An audience member yelled “anybody seen ICE lately?” to target council member Javiera Caballero, a Chilean immigrant with US citizenship [16, timestamp 0:00:45]. The racist heckler, Victoria Peterson, was admonished by mayor Leonardo Williams but not asked to leave.

September 2025: Kopac Endorsement

Allam endorsed Matt Kopac for Durham city council in September 2025. He went on to raise three times more money than his opponent, incumbent DeDreana Freeman. Kopac secured endorsements from the People’s Alliance and Indyweek. He won the election with 52 percent of the vote, while Freeman took 48 percent.

Freeman had served Ward 1 on Durham city council since 2017, accumulating a strong base of supporters due to progressive stances on annexation and rezoning cases, treatment of city workers, and a Gaza ceasefire resolution.

Before the election of Kopac, who replaced Freeman, and Shanetta Burris, who replaced Mark Antony-Middleton, the sharpest division on the Durham city council was the 4 to 3 split on development cases. Middleton, Javiera Caballero, Carl Rist, and Leonardo Williams voted to approve virtually all requests by property developers for zoning changes and consolidated annexations. Freeman, Nate Baker, and Chelsea Cook were less inclined to approve such requests, voting ‘yes’ around two-thirds of the time. Kopac is expected to lean more towards the Caballero-Rist-Williams group, while Burris is expected to lean toward the Baker-Cook group.

The day after Peterson’s racist outburst on August 4, the People’s Alliance held a candidate mixer on August 5 that resulted in a dispute between Allam and Freeman. When pressed by Freeman's husband on why Allam had endorsed Kopac instead of Freeman, Allam said that Freeman associated with “unnamed people [who] used divisive rhetoric”, according to the News and Observer. When Freeman heard that accusation, she confronted Allam and “repeatedly jabbed her in the arm” [17]. Based on social media activity, Freeman will be supporting Foushee in the Fourth District primary.

October 2025: Redistricting

On October 22, the Republican Party gerrymandered the North Carolina congressional map and removed Alamance, Person, and Granville counties from the Fourth District. The district now includes northern Chatham County, including Pittsboro, and western Wake County, including Apex.

Foushee won the areas that have been removed (Alamance, Person, and Granville counties) with lopsided margins in the 2022 primary. Allam is the daughter of Indian and Pakistani immigrants. Apex is home to more than 11,000 AAPI residents, making them the second-largest ethnic group after Whites.

December 2025: Round Two

Allam announced that she would run for Congress on December 11. She was quickly endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Working Families Party, Leaders We Deserve, and Sunrise Movement.

Foushee has garnered reflexive support from Democratic establishment in North Carolina, including the endorsements of Gov. Josh Stein, former Gov. Roy Cooper, former Rep. David Price, and many others.

In his endorsement statement, Sen. Sanders said Allam has spent her life “standing up to the billionaire class and fighting for working people … Raising wages for county workers, pushing for relief from rising costs, and standing up to the special interests who think they can buy our democracy … At a moment when the oligarchs are tightening their grip on government, we need leaders like Nida; leaders who answer to working families, not the billionaire class.”

Work Cited

1. 05/17/2022 OFFICIAL PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTS - ORANGE: US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISTRICT 04 - DEM. North Carolina State Board of Elections. https://er.ncsbe.gov/contest_details.html?election_dt=05/17/2022&county_id=68&contest_id=2099

2. Team Punchbowl News. (2022, April 29). Protect Our Future ad backing Valerie Foushee. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak0d6ygLGlE

3. Billman, J. (2025, December 11). Buying a Blue Seat. The Assembly NC. https://www.theassemblync.com/politics/buying-a-blue-seat-4th-district/

4. Durham and Charlotte chapters of local 150 win largest wage increases. (n.d.). UE. https://www.ueunion.org/ue-news/2024/durham-and-charlotte-chapters-of-local-150-win-largest-wage-increases-in-years

5. City Worker Action wins $24 per hour. (2025). In UE Local 150. https://ue150.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/UE150-Summer-2025-Newsletter-ACTUAL-11-x-14-in-1.pdf

6. Anderson, A. (2023, November 9). ‘Human Speed Bumps’: NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson on Durham Freeway Protesters calling for Gaza ceasefire. CBS 17. https://www.cbs17.com/news/political-news/human-speed-bumps-nc-lt-gov-mark-robinson-on-durham-freeway-calling-for-gaza-ceasefire/

7. Prime Minister Netanyahu to AIPAC delegation of Democratic Congressmen: "We must win - there is no substitute for victory". (2024, March 27). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrGI_9FDGR4

8. With strong backing from Labor, “Duke Respect Durham” campaign holds kickoff event. (2025, December 16). Durham Dispatch. https://www.durhamdispatch.com/post/with-strong-backing-from-labor-duke-respect-durham-campaign-holds-kickoff-event

9. Penn, I., & Zraick, K. (2024, December 4). North Carolina Town Sues Duke Energy Over Climate Change. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/business/energy-environment/duke-energy-climate-change-lawsuit.html

10. Drugmand, D. (2024, December 5). Carrboro, NC sues Duke Energy in first climate deception case targeting an electric utility. Climate in the Courts. https://www.climateinthecourts.com/carrboro-nc-sues-duke-energy-in-first-climate-deception-case-targeting-an-electric-utility

11. PA Statement for HEART expansion and 911 consolidation. (2025, January 2). People’s Alliance. https://www.durhampa.org/pa_statement

12. Kingdollar, B. (2025, April 23). At Pittsboro town hall, US Rep. Valerie Foushee warns of “constitutional crisis” facing America. NC Newsline. https://ncnewsline.com/2025/04/23/pittsboro-town-hall-rep-valerie-foushee-constitutional-crisis-facing-america/

13. McConnell, B. (2025, August 11). U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee took voters’ questions at a Carrboro town hall. Here are some highlights. Chapelboro.com. https://chapelboro.com/news/national/u-s-rep-valerie-foushee-took-voters-questions-at-a-carrboro-town-hall-here-are-some-highlights

14. 5K for Sudan Held in Wake Forest. (2025, June 16). Durham Dispatch. https://www.durhamdispatch.com/post/5k-for-sudan-held-in-wake-forest

15. Price, J., Davis, A., & Coffey, S. (2025, August 5). Developer pulls request to rezone, build major project in Durham’s Hayti District. ABC11 Raleigh-Durham. https://abc11.com/post/hayti-district-durham-city-council-vote-rezoning-request-historic-area/17429773/

16. Durham City Council August 4, 2025. (2025, August 5). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKtFfZqM1s0

17. Johnson, K. (2025, August 15). Durham City Council member pokes county commissioner at political mixer. News & Observer. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article311708525.html