Democratic challengers say incumbents aren’t fighting hard enough. This North Carolina primary will test that

(CNN) — At a time when the Democratic Party is calling for fighters, Rep. Valerie Foushee of North Carolina takes a quieter approach. Her work, she said, should speak for itself.

“I don’t care a whole lot about the limelight. I care even less about attention,” she said. “What I care most about is getting the job done.”

In 2022, Foushee beat Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam and six other Democrats to win the party’s nomination for the district after former Rep. David Price retired. This time around, in a rematch with Allam, the incumbent has the backing of dozens of local leaders, as well as the current and former Democratic governors, Josh Stein and Roy Cooper.

Despite that support — and the power of incumbency — the race is seen as competitive.

Tuesday’s primary in North Carolina’s 4th District offers one of the first national tests of what kind of leaders Democrats want to send to Washington. Voters will choose between an incumbent who keeps a low profile and a younger challenger pushing to change everything about the party, from how it raises money to how its leaders get their message out.

“We need our members of Congress to not just be quiet,” Allam said. “We need our members of Congress, our elected officials at all levels, to be using their platform, using their resources, to call out injustices.”

Both candidates identify as progressives but take different approaches on the key issues shaping the race.

Allam wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Foushee doesn’t go that far — she has backed a bill to defund the agency’s ability to detain or monitor immigrants. The challenger has called for a federal moratorium on new data centers, including a facility being considered for the district that both candidates oppose. The incumbent has said that power should be left to local communities, which should issue moratoriums until the federal government releases guidelines on data centers.

Allam calls Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide. Foushee has not used the same term, but said she refuses to continue funding what she called the “indiscriminate killing of people in Gaza” and backed legislation to stop the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel. (A UN commission found last year that Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip in its war following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack, a finding Israel rejects.)

But Allam’s biggest criticism has been outside money pouring into the race to boost Foushee. In their first matchup, Foushee benefited from roughly $3 million in outside spending from super PACs aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the cryptocurrency industry. Though Foushee has rejected AIPAC funding in this race, she’s being boosted by a late surge in spending, including from the Jobs and Democracy PAC, a super PAC aligned with the AI company Anthropic.

That spending has eclipsed Allam’s fundraising advantage and the money spent backing her challenge from liberal groups including Justice Democrats, Leaders We Deserve and American Priorities, a super PAC aiming to counter AIPAC’s influence.

Allam has also criticized Foushee’s corporate PAC donations from defense contractors and pharmaceutical companies, arguing that a candidate can’t advocate for ending the war in Gaza or “Medicare for All” while accepting those contributions. Foushee said the money comes from companies that create jobs in the district and challenged her opponent to point to a vote that was colored by her contributions.

“Look at my voting record and tell me if you can determine that … I am beholden to any corporation and that those votes are not representative of the values of my district,” she said.

An incumbent pushes back

Foushee, 69, has deep roots in the region. She attended segregated elementary schools growing up in Chapel Hill and began her political career nearly 30 years ago on her local school board to advocate for students of color. She became the first Black woman to chair the Orange County Board of Commissioners, where her hometown is located, then served in the state House and Senate.

Her allies have bristled at ads portraying her as tied to special interests, particularly a TV spot featuring Wake County Democratic Party Chair Wesley Knott in which he says Foushee “only works for the big guys.”

Tyler Swanson, the chair of the Wake County school board, said the ad motivated him and more than 50 Black leaders in the district to sign an endorsement letter backing Foushee.

“There’s a lot of misinformation that is around her record that is off-putting, and that is disheartening, and that is alarming,” Swanson said. “That is why I stood up and organized with Black electeds to push back and change this narrative.”

Foushee has pushed back on efforts to lump her in with other older incumbents who’ve spent decades in Congress while she has been in office for three years. Still, she pointed to her experience in Congress and her past elected positions, her subcommittee leadership position as a ranking member, and the funding she’s delivered to the district as evidence of her effectiveness in Washington.

“I’m just trying to figure out what it really means to be progressive, that you would decide that a Black female who has worked her way up to this point, and being put in leadership positions, all of a sudden it’s time for her to go?” she said. “Please help that make sense to me and what you believe is a progressive agenda.”

Tired of the status quo

Allam said this race isn’t about age but about pushing back on the Trump administration and the influence that corporations and dark money groups have on politics.

“I view myself as part of this wave of people who are sick and tired of the status quo,” she told CNN. “I’m right there alongside the residents of this district, living through their lived experiences of balancing paying off student debt, balancing the fact that I have two children that we have to put through child care.”

Allam got involved in politics after three of her close friends, all Muslim Americans, were shot and killed in 2015 by a neighbor in an incident viewed by many as a hate crime. Soon after she joined the 2016 political campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has endorsed her congressional bids and rallied with her in Durham in February. From there, she was elected to the state Democratic Party’s executive council and, in 2020, won a seat on the Durham County Board of Commissioners, becoming the first Muslim woman elected to any political position in the state’s history.

Her story is similar to many in the district — she was born in Canada to Indian and Pakistani immigrants and moved to the region as a child. The Durham metro area has experienced population growth far outpacing the national average, fueled in part by immigration. The Wake County part of the seat, which was added after redistricting in 2023, includes a sizable Asian American population.

Sue Mu, a council member in Apex, North Carolina, and an immigrant from China, said that though she respects Foushee and her contributions to the district, she endorsed Allam due to her ability to connect with younger voters.

“She’s young and full of passion, and she reflects the diversity, energy and lived experience of North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District today,” Mu said.

Locally, Allam has received less support than Foushee. One of her most prominent endorsements has come from Knott, the Wake County Democratic Party chair. While party chairs are traditionally neutral, Knott said it was important to get involved because his party’s reputation has plummeted with voters. Democrats need leaders who can fight effectively, he said, which requires having a platform.

“With all due respect to Rep. Foushee, the job is getting attention and communicating as much as it is voting ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on things that come to the floor of the House,” he said.

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