State reference

How does government work in North Carolina?

North Carolina’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

170

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

100

Counties

Local

Seats in the US House

Clerk of the House

Foundation: North Carolina State Constitution source
In effect since: 1971 source

What may surprise you here

The governor and lieutenant governor are elected at the same time but on separate lines of the ballot, so they can come from different parties. source
Court of Appeals and Supreme Court judges are elected statewide to eight-year terms, and the Superior Court is the main trial court alongside the District Court. source

Legislature

Name: General Assembly source
Senate: seats: 50 source
Senate: term in years: 2 source
House of Representatives: seats: 120 source
House of Representatives: term in years: 2 source
Term limits: None source

Structure set by: N.C. Const. art. II, secs. 1, 2 and 4.

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: No more than two consecutive terms source
Next regular election: 2028 source
Lieutenant governor: separate election source
Attorney general: elected source
Attorney general’s term in years: 4 source
Secretary of state: elected source
Secretary of state’s term in years: 4 source

Courts

Highest court: Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Court of Appeals source
Main trial court: Superior Court source
How high-court judges reach the bench: mixed: elected by voters to eight-year terms (ballot type set by law) source

Local government

Called: county source
How many: 100 source
Cities and towns: North Carolina has 552 municipal governments and no township governments, as of the 2022 Census of Governments. source
Schools: North Carolina has no independent school districts; its 174 school systems are dependent on county governments (2022 Census of Governments). source

Elections

Chief election official: State Board of Elections source
Who runs elections locally: County boards of elections source
Primary type: mixed: open to unaffiliated voters source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: no source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: Josh Stein Democratic, in office since January 1, 2025. source

US senators for North Carolina
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
Ted Budd	Republican	Class 3	January 3, 2023	January 3, 2029
Thom Tillis	Republican	Class 2	January 6, 2015	January 3, 2027

Members of the House for North Carolina
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
District 1	Donald G. Davis	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 2	Deborah K. Ross	Democratic	January 3, 2021
District 3	Gregory F. Murphy	Republican	September 17, 2019
District 4	Valerie P. Foushee	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 5	Virginia Foxx	Republican	January 4, 2005
District 6	Addison P. McDowell	Republican	January 3, 2025
District 7	David Rouzer	Republican	January 6, 2015
District 8	Mark Harris	Republican	January 3, 2025
District 9	Richard Hudson	Republican	January 3, 2013
District 10	Pat Harrigan	Republican	January 3, 2025
District 11	Chuck Edwards	Republican	January 3, 2023
District 12	Alma S. Adams	Democratic	November 12, 2014
District 13	Brad Knott	Republican	January 3, 2025
District 14	Tim Moore	Republican	January 3, 2025

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 2