News

Moffitt re-elected to second term in NC Senate

By Amy McCraw, Published: November 6, 2024

Republican incumbent Tim Moffitt earned a second term in the state Senate Tuesday, easily defeating Democratic challenger Chris Walters.

With 36 of 59 precincts reporting, Moffitt earned 66,435 votes or 63.75 percent of the vote to Walters 37,770 votes or 36.25 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results reported by the N.C. Board of Elections Tuesday night.
Moffitt late on Tuesday thanked voters for participating in the election regardless of the candidate they supported.
“It’s a testament to our resilience and pride as a community – Helene be damned – that we won’t let anything keep us down,” he said in a text message. “I’ve never been more proud of being from Henderson County and our North Carolina mountains.”
Moffitt, 60, was first elected to the N.C. Senate District 48 seat in 2022. He previously served as a representative for District 116 and 117 in the State House before pursuing election to the state senate. State Senate District 48 includes Henderson, Polk and Rutherford counties.
Moffitt is a small business owner who manages day-to-day operations of several businesses, including a boutique real estate firm, a mountaintop vacation and events venue and an international executive search and management consulting firm. Raised in Henderson County, Moffitt has family roots that go back more than 10 generations in the N.C. mountains. He and his wife, Deanna, have five adult sons, two of whom are U.S. Air Force veterans. They live in the Bearwallow community.
Moffitt said, in response to questions from Lightning before Tuesday’s election, that he ran for re-election to the state Senate to improve the lives of the families who call North Carolina home. “I will use my legislative experience from serving one term in the Senate and three terms in the House and my nearly four decades in business to pursue conservative, common-sense policies that enhance our economic freedom, our economic opportunities and our economic growth,” he said at the time.
Walters, 75, is a retired teacher and former construction worker with a bachelor’s degree in history. In response to questions from the Lightning before Tuesday’s election, Walters said he was running for the state legislature to represent regular working families.
In his second term, Moffitt said he wants to reform the personal property tax and work to end the state income tax. He said he also wants to pursue an aggressive course of regulatory reform to lower consumer costs and free up capital for business. Driving down home prices and increase the housing supply by removing barriers that unnecessarily block the development of new homes and hinder the approval process are also priorities, he said before Tuesday’s election. Moffitt said he would also like to find alternative, non-taxpayer revenue sources to stabilize the funding stream for North Carolina’s vast transportation infrastructure.