North Carolina has had very few independent candidates on its ballots. In the entire history of government-printed ballots in North Carolina, there has never been an independent candidate for U.S. House. The only statewide independent who ever appeared on a government-printed ballot was Ross Perot in 1992. Until this year, no independent had run for the legislature since 2000.

But in the November 7, 2006 election, two independents ran against each other, and against a Republican nominee, in the 52nd State House district, which includes part of Moore County (a county midway between Charlotte and Raleigh). The Republican nominee, Joe Boylan, was elected with 43.4% of the vote. One of the independents running against him (Gerald Galloway) polled 35.8%; the other (Bud Shaver) polled 20.8%.

Boylan faced these independent opponents because the Moore County Republican Party is split into two factions. The faction opposed to Boylan ran Shaver against him as an independent (Shaver is married to an officer of the Moore County Republican Party). The other independent candidate, Galloway, had recently been a registered Democrat, although he is now a registered independent. Moore County’s Democratic Party is weak and the Democrats didn’t nominate anyone.

Also, in Durham County, the incumbent Democratic District Attorney, Mike Nifong, faced both an independent opponent and a write-in opponent. Nifong was renominated in the Democratic primary without opposition in May 2006. After the primary, he generated controversy by his prosecution of several members of the Duke Univeristy LaCrosse team, on a charge of rape. The prosecution has been controversial since there is no evidence against the team members other than the word of the woman who accused them. Lewis Cheek qualified as an independent candidate, and Steve Monks carried on a write-in candidacy. Although Nifong was re-elected, he won without a majority. The results were Nifong 49.5%, independent Cheek 39.5%, write-in nominee Monks 11.0%.