Two more years: Howard retains constituent confidence

Julia Howard has represented the people of her district since the 1980s, and she is heading back to Raleigh for at least two more years.

The incumbent in District 77 for the North Carolina House successfully fended off a challenge from former Rowan-Salisbury School Board member Sabrina Harris. Howard took home 25,470 votes (70.79 percent) compared to Harris’ 10,511 votes (29.21 percent).

Howard’s district-wide numbers roughly mirrored the Rowan County turnout, where she received 2,940 votes (70.4 percent), and Harris received 1,236 (29.6 percent).

Howard’s percentages were down this year compared to 2024, when she defeated Kashmir Sibby 79 percent to 21 percent. That push to the left was felt across the state, but unlike many of her Republican colleagues in the House, Howard was able to hold on for reelection.

“I was shocked that the numbers were what they were,” she said on Thursday. “We knew that we were going to lose seats but not to the extent that we did.

“If you look at the numbers, it was a direct flip, where the Democrats had x number, and we had x number, and it went reverse.”

Howard is not discouraged, though, acknowledging the pendulum-like nature of politics, especially in a competitive swing state.

“When I went in 1988, I was in the minority,” she said. “We sat there for a long time until we took the majority. It is different, and there is a whole lot more work on the majority side than the minority side.

“People just don’t understand that it comes with a lot of responsibility to chair a committee and run that committee with all the rules and the deals.”

Howard expressed a concern that work between the two chambers could be challenging with each party holding one, assuming the Republicans hold on in the Senate. There is one race in Robeson County still hanging in the balance that, if it were to go Democrat, would shift the chamber’s controlling party. In doing so, she dismissed an inability to work across the aisle within the House of Representatives.
“The willingness is not across the aisle, it is between chambers,” Howard said.

Tuesday’s election results left a lot of people scrambling to explain how such a monumental reversal could have happened in such a short time. Howard pointed to economic pressures and a saying she remembers her grandmother often espousing.

“I always remember something my grandmother said, ‘People vote with their pocketbook,’” Howard said. “That is what they are thinking about. How much was the grocery bill and the light bill? I think that was just it. That is what people were thinking.”

Having been in the house for as long as she has, Howard has made more than one friend on the hill. She expressed disappointment that so many of her fellow Republicans lost their reelection bids, including nearby Donny Lambeth (District 75, Forsyth).

“We lost Donny, who had brought in millions (of dollars) for Forsyth County over the years, and they voted him out,” she said.

She mentioned that she was grateful for the voters of Rowan, Davie and Forsyth counties that elected to keep her as their representative.

“I have said for many years that the most important thing I can do is take care of my people,” she said. “It is the little things that you can do that add up.”

Howard will step down from her role as the senior finance chair.

“That is OK,” she said. “I’ll let somebody else step up, and I hope they remember how to do it, because you can’t bankrupt the state.”