In a contentious North Carolina House race, it was $59,000 against an incumbent’s $3 million warchest—and the challenger won

In a blue wave midterm that swept Democrats into power in previously Republican strongholds, even major money couldn’t make the difference, and one race in North Carolina is the perfect example.

In North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District, which stretches from the suburbs of Charlotte to the Western North Carolina mountains, Democratic political newcomer LaKesha Womack unseated Rep. Tim Moore, the influential former state House speaker who helped draw the district and dominated it in 2024.

Moore outraised Womack more than 50 to 1, with a war chest of $3 million compared to $59,000 raised by his Democratic opponent, according to Axios. Even still, Womack narrowly beat out Moore in the midterm election Tuesday by about 6,400 votes, ending the Republican’s time in Congress after just one term.

The win was particularly striking because Moore, who served for more than two decades in the North Carolina House—and served the longest ever stint as speaker of the state House—helped redraw the district in 2023, and the following year, he won it by about 16 percentage points, according to the Washington Post.

Womack, an entrepreneur and the founder of Womack Consulting Group, said despite being outspent, she used her limited funds to attend between five and seven events per week in the district she aimed to represent, according to an interview with Spectrum News.

“A lot of that money was spent on gas,” she said. “I made sure that I showed up everywhere across this district.”

Rep. Moore did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

In a statement to Fortune, Womack said this week’s victory was “a testament to the power of ordinary people who believe that their voices matter and that........

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