By Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com
When the dust settled on March 3 — primary Election Day in North Carolina — Democratic candidate for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District Paul Barringer came out on top of his race.
Someone was always going to win, of course, but Barringer’s victory stood out because it marks the first time in recent memory — and maybe ever — that Sanford has produced a Congressional nominee from either of the major parties.
Jimmy Love Sr. sought the Democratic nomination for the Congressional seat covering Sanford in the early 1970s. But Love, who served in the state House prior to that run and again in the mid 2000s, came up short in that primary. Sanford has produced other political figures who both sought and held higher office — including Dennis Wicker, who served as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor from 1992 to 2000, and Robert Reives II, who is from Sanford and now represents Chatham County in the state House (and is Democratic leader in that chamber) — but we haven’t been able to find any evidence of Lee County producing a major-party congressional nominee in the modern era.
Barringer hails from the Deep River area and has deep roots there. He moved back from the Washington, D.C. area in 2025 to be closer to his mother Jane, who taught school here for years and “knows everyone.”
“She needed some help and I wanted to be here for her,” he said.
Running for Congress wasn’t on his radar at the time, although he has a long history working as an attorney on health and health care policy. Barringer grew up in Lee County, working for the family fertilizer company (Sapona Mills) in the 1980s, and went on to earn degrees from Davidson College and Princeton, as well as a law degree from the University of North Carolina. He said he decided to run for Congress after becoming concerned about the nature — and volume — of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in 2025.
“I saw it as very concerning,” he said. “And there were many people around me who felt the same. I looked at myself in the mirror and decided I could keep looking at the news, or I could help.”
Barringer easily topped his competition in the primary — he carried all of the 13th Congressional District’s eight counties (it covers all of Lee, Harnett, Johnston, Franklin, Person, and Caswell counties, and parts of Wake and Granville) with between 50 and 60 percent of the vote over fellow Democrats Frank Pierce and Alexander Nicholi. He’ll face incumbent Republican Brad Knott of Raleigh, who is seeking a second term, in the fall.
Victory in the general will be a tougher climb, though, due to the district’s partisan makeup. The district is rated as R+8, meaning it’s 8 points more Republican than the national average in presidential elections. Knott, who has declined to respond to questions from The Rant in the past, won the seat in 2024 with 58 percent of the vote.
Barringer acknowledges the race being a challenge, but said he “wants to win.” He says at one point in his life — and not too long ago — he was registered as a Republican, and hopes that means he’ll be able to appeal to folks in places like Lee County.
“As a Republican, I believed that government had a role in addressing the issues we have,” he said. “I still believe that as a Democrat. In fact, at the polling sites (during the primary), I met a lot of Republicans. I told them I don’t want the government to be any bigger than it needs to be, I don’t want to pay any more taxes than I need to, and I want to follow the Constitution — a lot of them agreed with me. I think people want to see us find ways to work together and get things done.”
Barringer also sees Congress reasserting its role as a co-equal branch of government as a priority, and is hopeful that positive outcomes for the whole country can follow from that.
“The message we have about affordability and common sense reform can resonate,” he said. “I’ve talked to thousands of people and gotten incredible feedback — from Democrats, Republicans, independents. Folks have really been encouraging across the board.”
He’s a democrat! Enough said