Mayor Cyril Jefferson beat Rep. Addison McDowell by 6,264 votes in District 6, unofficial results show. The City Council will appoint a new mayor once he takes office.

High Point Mayor Cyril Jefferson has won North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District. He beat Republican Rep. Addison McDowell by 6,264 votes, according to unofficial results.

Jefferson, a Democrat, had 140,001 votes, or 51.1%. McDowell had 133,737, or 48.9%. All 195 precincts in the district had reported. The figures are from the N.C. State Board of Elections results site on Wednesday.

The results are unofficial. Counties certify their totals at canvass meetings later this month. Guilford County’s canvass is at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 13, according to the county board of elections.

Where the votes came from

District 6 takes in parts of six counties. Jefferson won three of them and lost three, the state’s figures show.

Guilford County carried him. In the part of Guilford inside the district, he had 45,263 votes to McDowell’s 17,456. That 27,807-vote lead was more than four times his margin across the whole district.

Bar chart of Cyril Jefferson's share of the two-candidate vote in U.S. House District 6, by county: Guilford 72.2%, Cabarrus 62.3%, Forsyth 54.0%, Rowan 40.7%, Davidson 34.9%, Davie 32.7%. Districtwide he had 51.1%.
Jefferson's share of the District 6 vote in each county. Chart by High Point Today; data N.C. State Board of Elections, unofficial.
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County (district part only) Jefferson McDowell
Guilford 45,263 17,456
Cabarrus 22,417 13,566
Forsyth 24,507 20,837
Rowan 20,584 29,987
Davidson 21,194 39,479
Davie 6,036 12,412
District 6 140,001 133,737

Not every High Point voter was in District 6. Guilford County ballots carried U.S. House Districts 5, 6 or 9, depending on address, as our Election Day guide set out. Your sample ballot in the state’s Voter Search tool shows which district you are in.

What happens to the mayor’s seat

High Point will need a new mayor, but not yet. The new Congress begins at noon Jan. 3, under the 20th Amendment. Jefferson remains mayor until he takes the new office.

The city’s own City Council reference sets out what happens next:

  • A mayor or council member elected to another office must leave the city office when taking the new one. City officials may not hold two elective offices at once.
  • If the mayor’s seat becomes vacant, the City Council appoints a qualified person to serve the rest of the unexpired term. There is no special election.
  • The council must acknowledge the vacancy in an open meeting. It may take applications or expressions of interest.
  • If the council appoints one of its own members as mayor, that member’s council seat becomes vacant and is filled the same way.

Council member Monica Peters, who represents Ward 3, is mayor pro tem, according to the city’s council page.

The city had not announced a timeline for the appointment as of Wednesday evening.

What it means for you

  • City services do not change. High Point runs under the council-manager form of government. An appointed city manager runs daily operations, and the council sets policy. Our who to call at City Hall page has the numbers.
  • The council will choose the next mayor, not voters. Watch the council’s meetings at 5:30 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month, in Council Chambers on the third floor of the Municipal Building, 211 S. Hamilton St. The next regular meeting is Monday, Nov. 16.
  • If you live in District 6, Jefferson becomes your member of Congress on Jan. 3. Until then, McDowell holds the seat.

We will update this story when the county canvass makes the results official and when the city sets out how it will fill the mayor’s seat. Full Guilford County results are in our results story.