Early voting is under way for 15 statewide, congressional and legislative seats and ends Saturday. Republicans are particularly excited about the chance of taking over a seat held by a Democrat. The district has been redrawn to be more GOP-friendly. The runoff election is Tuesday.

 

Incumbent Heath Shuler is not seeking re-election. 

Shuler's former chief of staff Hayden Rogers convincingly won the Democratic primary in May while Meadows and Patterson survived an eight-person contest on the Republican side.

 

Both of the GOP challengers own businesses and have fundamentally opposite plans for creating jobs. Patterson has a self-proclaimed "micro" view while Meadows says his approach is "macro."