RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A candidate seeking the Republican nomination for a North Carolina congressional seat announced Thursday that she's suspending her campaign, citing her rival's endorsement by former President Donald Trump in their upcoming runoff.
Johnston County attorney Kelly Daughtry had finished first among 14 candidates in the March 5 Republican primary for the central North Carolina 13th Congressional District. But Daughtry failed to get above the 30% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff — she received 27%. She and second-place finisher Brad Knott, a former federal prosecutor who got 19% of the vote, advanced to the scheduled May 14 runoff.
In a social media post, Daughtry said that with Trump's formal backing of Knott last month “it has become clear that a pathway to victory is no longer feasible."
“I believe in the democratic process and respect the endorsement of our President,” Daughtry added.
Knott had also picked up the endorsement of third-place primary finisher, Fred Von Canon.
“The time has now come to suspend my campaign,” Daughtry added. “Brad has my full endorsement, and I want him to know that I am here to support him, not to oppose him.”
Ending a campaign less than two weeks before any election is unusual, and even more so for the top vote-getter in a primary. Knott had to formally ask for the runoff. But the turnabout speaks to the influence from Trump's backing in a state that he won both in 2016 and 2020.
But her announcement doesn't mean she is no longer an official candidate, the State Board of Elections said. And her name won't be removed from the ballot — it's too late for that. Early in-person voting for the runoff continues through May 11, and traditional absentee balloting has been going on for weeks.
Knott accepted Daughtry's endorsement in his own statement but cautioned supporters who believed he was now the primary winner. Daughtry, the daughter of former state legislative leader and gubernatorial candidate Leo Daughtry, ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in 2022, losing to Bo Hines.
“While Kelly has ended her campaign, this election is not over,” Knott said. “I strongly encourage my supporters to get out and vote on May 14.”
Should Daughtry win the second primary but not accept the nomination, the Republicans' 13th District executive committee would appoint a candidate to appear on the November ballot, state elections board spokesperson Pat Gannon said by email.
The seat for the reconfigured 13th District covers all or parts of eight counties. The horseshoe-shaped boundaries arc around most of Raleigh, the state capital, and stretch from Lee County — then east and north — to the Virginia border.
The current 13th District is represented by first-term Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel. Nickel, however, declined to seek reelection, citing the North Carolina legislature's redistricting last fall that skewed his district to the right politically. Two other Democratic incumbents — Reps. Jeff Jackson and Kathy Manning — didn't run either, saying the GOP-leaning skew also made it impossible for them to win in November.
The GOP runoff winner in the 13th District will still have a fall Democratic rival in Frank Pierce. Still, the Democratic departures could make a big difference in whether Republicans can retain their narrow U.S. House majority entering 2025.
Currently Democrats and Republicans hold seven congressional seats each in North Carolina. But the configuration of the map upon which this year's elections are held makes it likely the GOP will win at least 10 of the 14 seats, according to election data.
The May 14 runoff also includes two statewide races — for the GOP primary nominations for lieutenant governor and state auditor.
FILE - Kelly Daughtry, Republican candidate for North Carolina's 13th District U.S. House of Representatives seat, speaks at a rally, Jan. 26, 2024, in Roxboro, N.C. Daughtry announced Thursday, May 2, that she's suspending her campaign, citing her rival's endorsement by former President Donald Trump in their upcoming runoff. (AP Photo/Chris Seward, File)
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was seriously wounded in an apparent assassination attempt just weeks before a Europe-wide election that has been deeply divisive. He was shot multiple times in an attack in the town of Handlova that authorities described as politically motivated, although they said the suspect did not belong to any political groups.
Here’s a global look at other notable assassinations and assassination attempts during the 21st century:
— Sept. 1, 2022: Argentina's then-Vice President Cristina Fernández is targeted by a man who reportedly aimed a handgun at point-blank range toward the politician in what government ministers characterize as an assassination attempt.
— July 8, 2022: Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is assassinated by a gunman who opened fire on him as he delivered a campaign speech on a street in western Japan.
— Nov. 6, 2021: Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi survives an assassination attempt when two armed drones target his residence in Baghdad's Green Zone area. While al-Kadhimi is uninjured, seven of his security guards are injured in the attack.
— Oct. 15, 2021: British lawmaker David Amess is stabbed to death by an Islamic State supporter while meeting with voters.
— July 7, 2021: Haitian President Jovenel Moïse is assassinated by gunmen in an overnight raid on his Port-au-Prince home. His widow, Martine, ex-prime minister Claude Joseph and the former chief of Haiti’s National Police, Léon Charles, among others, are indicted in his killing in February 2024.
— April 20, 2021: Chad President Idriss Deby Itno is killed while battling rebels in the north. Hours earlier he had been declared the winner of an election that would have given him another six years in power.
— Aug. 4, 2018: Drones armed with explosives detonate near Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an apparent assassination attempt while he is delivering a speech to hundreds of soldiers being broadcast live on television. Six people are later arrested in connection with the attack.
— Dec. 19, 2016: Russia’s ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is shot dead by a Turkish policeman shouting condemnation of Russia’s military role in Syria, in front of a shocked gathering at a photo exhibit. The gunman was later killed in a shootout with police.
— July 15, 2016: A group of Turkish soldiers using tanks, warplanes and helicopters launch a plot to overthrow Turkey's president and government. The coup attempt fails. One year later, 40 people are sentenced to life in prison after being convicted on charges that include attempting to kill President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
— June 16, 2016: British lawmaker Jo Cox is shot and stabbed to death by a far-right supporter in the English village of Birstall, part of her constituency.
— Feb. 6, 2013: Tunisian left-wing opposition leader Chokri Belaid is fatally shot outside his Tunis home. His killing — followed six months later by that of another left-wing leader, Mohammed Brahmi — plunged Tunisia into political chaos. Four people are sentenced to death and two others to life in prison in March 2024 for their roles in his death.
— Oct. 20, 2011: Longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is hunted and summarily killed by insurgents after being toppled in a NATO-backed uprising.
— Jan. 8, 2011: U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords survives an assassination attempt after being shot by a man in an Arizona grocery store parking lot while meeting with constituents. Giffords' injuries are so significant that she has to re-learn how to walk and talk. The attack kills six other people and wounds 11 more.
— March 2, 2009: Guinea-Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira is killed by renegade soldiers in his palace, hours after a bomb blast killed his rival in the West African nation.
— December 27, 2007: Benazir Bhutto, the first female prime minister in a Muslim-majority country as well as Pakistan’s second nationally elected prime minister, is shot at and then fatally attacked by a suicide bomber at a political rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
— Feb. 14, 2005: Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is killed by a suicide truck bomb on a seaside boulevard in Beirut. Another 21 people die and 226 are wounded in the attack, which is seen by many in Lebanon as the work of neighboring Syria.
— March 12, 2003: Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is shot dead in front of the Serbian government headquarters in Belgrade. He was a key leader of the revolt that toppled former President Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000. Twelve people are later convicted in connection with the killing, which was carried out to halt his pro-Western reforms, according to a Serbian court ruling.
— July 2, 2002: French President Jacques Chirac survives an assassination attempt by a far-right right supporter who shoots at him and misses during Bastille Day celebrations on Paris' Champs-Elysees. Chirac is uninjured.
— May 6, 2002: Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is gunned down in a northern Netherlands city, days before a general election in which he was a candidate, by an animal rights activist.
— June 1, 2001: Nepal’s King Birendra is killed when his son, Crown Prince Dipendra, opens fire on his family in the royal palace. The dead include Queen Aiswarya, a prince and five others. Officials said the shooting followed a dispute over the prince’s marriage.
— Jan. 18, 2001: Congo President Laurent Kabila is assassinated in the presidential palace in the capital, Kinshasa, by one of his bodyguards, who is killed minutes later by security forces.
FILE - Supporters of Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez gather in Plaza de Mayo square the day after a person pointed a gun at her outside her home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)
FILE - A police investigator works in a van at the scene where a person pointed a gun at Argentina's Vice President Cristina Fernandez outside her home in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Sept. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)
FILE - People pray at a makeshift memorial at the scene where former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot during an election campaign in Nara, western Japan on July 8, 2022. Abe was assassinated by a gunman who opened fire on him as he delivered a campaign speech on a street. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
Rescue workers wheel Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot and injured, to a hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica, central Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (Jan Kroslak/TASR via AP)
Police arrest a man after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot and injured following the cabinet's away-from-home session in the town of Handlova, Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile. (Radovan Stoklasa/TASR via AP)
FILE - Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico speaks during a press conference with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the Carmelite Monastery in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Slovakia's populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was wounded in a shooting Wednesday May 15, 2024 and taken to hospital. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos, File)
