page_title: 2010 United States House of Representatives elections in North Carolina
section_title: District 12
hierarchical_section_title: 2010 United States House of Representatives elections in North Carolina / District 12
caption_attribution_description: Mel Watt, member of the United States Congress.
context_page_description: Elections were held on November 2, 2010 to determine North Carolina's 13 members of the United States House of Representatives. Representatives were elected for two-year-terms to serve in the 112th United States Congress from January 3, 2011 until January 3, 2013. Primary elections were held on May 4, 2010 and primary runoff elections were held on June 22, 2010.
  Of the 13 elections, the races in the 2nd, 8th and 11th districts were rated as competitive by Sabato's Crystal Ball, while the 2nd, 7th, 8th and 11th districts were rated as competitive by CQ Politics and The Rothenberg Political Report, and the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th and 11th districts were rated as competitive by The Cook Political Report. Of North Carolina's 13 incumbents, 12 were re-elected while one unsuccessfully sought re-election.
  In total, seven Democrats and six Republicans were elected. A total of 2,662,529 votes were cast, of which 1,440,913 were for Republican candidates, 1,204,635 were for Democratic candidates, 16,562 were for Libertarian candidates and 439 were for write-in candidates. As of 2016, this is the last time that Democrats won a majority of North Carolina's congressional districts.
context_section_description: The 12th district included parts of Charlotte, Greensboro, High Point, Salisbury and Winston-Salem. The district's population was 44 percent black, 41 percent white and 11 percent Hispanic (see Race and ethnicity in the United States Census); 80 percent were high school graduates and 22 percent had received a bachelor's degree or higher. Its median income was $40,075. In the 2008 presidential election the district gave 71 percent of its vote to Democratic nominee Barack Obama and 29 percent to Republican nominee John McCain.
  Democrat Mel Watt, who took office in 1993, was the incumbent. Watt was re-elected in 2008 with 72 percent of the vote. In 2010 Watt's opponent in the general election was Republican nominee Greg Dority, a partner in a security firm. Libertarian Party nominee Lon Cecil, an electronics engineer, also ran. Watt was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Scott Cumbie, who worked in the computer industry; and William "Doc" Gillenwater, a retiree, also sought the Republican nomination.
  Watt raised $604,719 and spent $591,204. Cecil raised $13,041 and spent $12,996. Prior to the election FiveThirtyEight's forecast gave Watt a 100 percent chance of winning and projected that he would receive 67 percent of the vote to Dority's 30 percent. On election day Watt was re-elected with 64 percent of the vote to Dority's 34 percent. Watt was again re-elected in 2012. In 2013 Watt was confirmed as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency; he was succeeded by fellow Democrat Alma Adams.
caption: Mel Watt, who was re-elected as the U.S. Representative for the 12th district
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