Eight candidates are running in the Democratic primary election for North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District on May 17, 2022. Incumbent Rep. David Price (D)—first elected in 1986, defeated in 1994, and re-elected in 1996—is not seeking re-election. This is the first time the 4th District has been open since 1972.
Media attention has focused on three candidates: Clay Aiken, Nida Allam, and Valerie Foushee. The Assembly‘s Michael Graff described the three as “Aiken, the former American Idol contestant who says he wants to become the South’s first gay congressman,” “Allam, a 28-year-old Muslim and rising star who’s spent most of her life in the Triangle,” and “Foushee, who worked with the Chapel Hill police department for years and has a lot of support among older Black Democrats in Durham.”
Aiken is a co-chair of the National Inclusion Project, an organization that provides opportunities for children with disabilities, which he co-founded in 2003, the same year he placed second in the American Idol singing competition. Aiken highlighted his national recognizability, saying he would “continue to use his platform to be a powerful, progressive voice for voting rights, free health care, and a woman’s right to choose.” Aiken ran in the 2nd District in 2014, winning the Democratic primary and losing to incumbent Rep. Renee Ellmers (R) 59-41% in the general election.
