Richard Hudson

Incumbent Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican, faces a challenge from Democrat Richard Ojeda for North Carolina's 9th Congressional District.

The 9th District, one of two congressional districts in Cumberland County, includes most of Fayetteville and parts of Cumberland County, as well as all of Alamance, Hoke, Moore and Randolph counties and portions of Chatham and Guilford counties.

Ojeda is a retired U.S. Army major and a former West Virginia state senator who now lives in Aberdeen. He's seeking to unseat Hudson, who was first elected to Congress in 2012 and lives in Southern Pines.

The general election is Nov. 3. Ahead of early voting, which begins Oct. 15, The Fayetteville Observer asked candidates to complete a questionnaire. Responses have been edited for minor spelling errors but are otherwise published as submitted.

Read on to see how the candidates responded to our questionnaire.

Richard Hudson

Age: 54

Occupation: U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 9th District

Relevant experience, including any current or previous elected office: Member of Congress since 2013. Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and a member of House Republican leadership. Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and chairman of its Telecom Subcommittee. Before Congress, I worked as a congressional staffer on Capitol Hill and ran my own small business.

Contact information: richardhudson.org | @rephudsonnc on Instagram and X, Richard Hudson on Facebook

Richard Ojeda

Age: 56

Occupation: Retired U.S. Army Major

Relevant experience, including any current or previous elected office: 24 years in the U.S. Army, including combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and 15 years stationed at Fort Bragg. Elected to the West Virginia State Senate, where I stood with teachers and public employees during the 2018 statewide strike and fought for veterans and working families.

Contact information: Email: [email protected] + [email protected]; phone: 267-303-3717 (Amy Dorra, campaign manager); x.com/ojedafornc; nstagram.com/ojedafornc; facebook.com/ojedafornc; tiktok.com/@ojedafornc; youtube.com/@OjedaforNC; ojedafornc.com

Why are you running, and why should North Carolina voters choose you?

Hudson: I'm running because we're not done cleaning up Joe Biden's mess. Four years of open borders, sky-high prices, and a disastrous retreat from Afghanistan left our country weaker and less safe. Working with President Trump, we've secured the border and passed the largest tax cut in American history. Every single Democrat voted against it. If they take back the House, they'll raise your taxes and open the border back up. I won't let that happen.

Voters should choose me because I deliver, and my record proves that. As a member of House Republican leadership, I have a seat at the table when the big decisions get made, and I use it for North Carolina's working families, veterans, and military communities.

Ojeda: I'm running because working people in this district are getting sold out, and I've spent my life standing with them instead of the corporations that keep buying influence in Washington.

I served 24 years in the Army, most of it out of Fort Bragg, where my wife and I raised our kids. I know this district and the people in it. In the West Virginia Senate, I fought for teachers and public employees on the picket line, not from behind a podium.

I'm the grandson of a Mexican immigrant who came here to work the mines, and I know what it means when this country keeps its promises and when it doesn't. Congress needs people who've actually experienced the consequences of the decisions made there, not another politician protecting donors. I've never taken a dollar from defense industry PACs or corporate PACs, and I never will. Voters in NC-09 deserve someone who will fight for lower costs, stronger Social Security and Medicare, and a government that answers to them instead of whoever writes the biggest check.

What is the most important issue facing North Carolina, and what specific action would you take in Congress to address it?

Hudson: Making North Carolina affordable and safe again. Biden's reckless spending drove the worst inflation in 40 years, and families here still feel it every time they buy groceries or fill up the tank. The working families tax cuts we passed are putting money back in people's pockets, but no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and the new senior deduction are set to expire after 2028. I'll fight to make them permanent, and I'll keep working to unleash American energy to bring down power bills.

Families also deserve to feel safe in their own communities, and Roy Cooper's record speaks for itself. He agreed to release thousands of inmates early during COVID while he was marching, maskless in the streets with BLM, and on his last day as governor, he took 15 convicted killers off death row. In Congress, I'll keep standing with our police and fighting to keep violent criminals off our streets.

Ojeda: That's affordability. Gas, groceries, health care, and prescription drugs keep climbing while wages stay flat and corporations post record profits.

Regular gas in this district is running about $4.15 a gallon, up from $2.73 a year ago, and diesel is over $6. In Congress, I'll fight to lower prescription drug and energy costs, protect access to affordable health care, and stop handing tax breaks to industries like data centers while families struggle to pay the electric bill. I'll also push to cut taxes on the first $45,000 a family earns and tie the minimum wage to inflation so paychecks stop falling behind.

I measure the economy by one thing, and that is, can somebody working full-time fill up their truck, buy groceries, pay their bills, and still have something left over? Right now, too many families here can't, and that has to change.

Cumberland County is home to Fort Bragg and one of the nation's largest military communities. What would be your top priority for service members, veterans and military families?

Hudson: Making sure our troops have everything they need, on the job and at home. That means safe living conditions on base, families who can get the resources they need right there, more flexibility in their health care, and no lapses in their pay or benefits. That's my promise to them, and I've got the record to back it up. This year alone, I secured $140.4 million for North Carolina and Fort Bragg through the annual defense bill, including new facilities for our special operators and our National Guard.

Our commitment doesn't stop when the uniform comes off. When the Fayetteville State Veterans Home closed, it displaced dozens of veterans, and Congress just passed my bill to clear the way to replace it. I'll keep fighting for the care and benefits our veterans and Gold Star families have earned. They took care of us, and now it's our job to take care of them.

Ojeda: Fort Bragg is in this district, and I've spent 15 years living alongside the families who serve there, so this isn't abstract to me. My top priority is making sure the people who carry out this country's foreign policy are actually taken care of afterward. Roughly half of everyone who serves in a war ends up filing a disability claim, and we'll be paying for this generation's wars for fifty years. That means investment in VA capacity, toxic exposure care, and mental health services, not empty promises. It also means restoring Congress's war powers so soldiers aren't sent into unauthorized conflicts, like the current war with Iran, without a vote. When the 82nd Airborne deployed from Bragg and then had their tour extended to a full year, I said out loud what a lot of people in uniform can't say for themselves. Military families at Fort Bragg deserve a member of Congress who has actually worn the uniform and will fight for them, not just show up for a photo at the gate.

What issue is your party not addressing as effectively as it should, and what would you do differently?

Hudson: Making sure our troops get paid during a government shutdown. Last fall, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats shut down the government for 43 days, and military families were left wondering if their next paycheck would show up. House Republicans passed a clean bill to keep the government open and pay our troops, and President Trump found a way to pay them in the meantime. But military families shouldn't have to go through that every time Congress gets into a funding fight.

Our servicemembers don't get to stop doing their jobs when Washington can't do its job. I've cosponsored legislation to make sure our troops get paid during a shutdown, and I'll keep fighting for them in Congress.

Ojeda: Democrats have let Republicans claim the mantle of the working class while too many of our own candidates sound like they're reading from a memo. We've spent too long being cautious instead of being clear about who we're fighting for and who we're fighting against. I'd do it differently by refusing corporate PAC money, showing up in the places Democrats usually skip, like VFW halls and union meetings in deep red counties, and talking about kitchen table costs in plain language instead of polling-tested buzzwords. If we can make the case for working people in rural North Carolina and military communities, we can build a majority that lasts instead of one that depends on the other side messing up.

What is one thing you believe Congress as a whole should accomplish in the coming years, and what role would you play in making that happen?

Hudson: Banning members of Congress from trading stocks. The American people are fed up with politicians getting rich while working families struggle to get by, and they have every right to be. Nobody should have to wonder whether their congressman is voting for them or for their own stock portfolio. Nancy Pelosi's trades got so famous that people built apps to copy them.

I was an original cosponsor of the Stop Insider Trading Act, and we passed it in the House this summer. Democrats killed the bill in the Senate, but this fight isn't over. As one of the top five Republicans in the House, I'll keep using my seat at the table to stop members of Congress from cashing in until this ban is law.

Ojeda: Congress needs to reclaim its constitutional authority over war, which it has been giving away for a generation. This year alone, we watched a war with Iran launched with no vote and Americans killed before Congress ever got a say. I intend to push to sunset outdated authorizations for the use of military force, require congressional authorization before offensive operations, and make sure any future war is actually debated and voted on by the people's representatives instead of decided in secret.

I've said this since the first night of the Iran war, and I'd say it to a president of either party. I plan to seek a seat on the House Armed Services Committee, where I can push this work directly, informed by having actually served in uniform under the authorizations Congress keeps handing away.