North, Zenger rematch for NC House seat could be nailbiter

Before she decided to run for the state legislature in 2024, Amy Taylor North had a conversation with a friend. They were both involved in their community through nonprofits and other groups, but felt like they kept putting out the same fires.

They wondered whether it was possible to make longlasting change from outside the political system. Determined, they resolved to run for office. While North’s friend didn’t go through with it, she did.

North, a small business owner, called Democratic leaders to tell them she was running in House District 74, which covers western Forsyth County. She didn’t hear much from them again, she told Carolina Public Press. The district was labeled an R+5 district at the time, according to the Civitas Partisan Index, meaning that its voters tended to vote five percentage points more Republican than the statewide average. It wasn’t considered a potential Democratic pickup.

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Nonetheless, North’s community got behind her. 

“We had not-jaded people, not people who are used to doing the same thing all the time,” she said. “We had fresh blood, fresh energy, and we did things differently. It was a really innovative and energetic campaign.”

It seemed to have paid off on Election Night, until 10 p.m. Then, Republican Rep. Jeff Zenger, R-Forsyth, pulled ahead in the vote count. North ultimately lost by fewer than 2,000 votes in a much narrower race than expected. 

North and Zenger are set for a rematch in November. Zenger will be fighting to keep his seat for a fourth term. 

He declined to be interviewed for this story. 

Zenger’s record

Over the past three terms, Zenger’s found a particular niche in the legislature: regulatory reform. He chairs the House regulatory reform and housing and development committees. He also owns a construction company, and served on the Lewisville Town Council and planning board before his time in Raleigh. 

This session, one of his major accomplishments was getting House Bill 402, the REINS Act, across the finish line. The bill requires an extra layer of legislative approval when government agencies, like the Department of Environmental Quality, propose regulatory rules that would cost more than $20 million in a five-year period, and higher levels of approval within the relevant board or commission if the estimated costs run higher than $1 million in a five-year period. 

Opponents dislike that the bill shifts decision-making power from agency experts — and the governor, who oversees executive agencies — to lawmakers. They argue that by not considering the cost of not regulating, the law could result in issues like unchecked pollution. 

Zenger told the North Carolina chapter of the Americans for Prosperity in an interview that North Carolina needed a “major overhaul” on overregulation. 

“It is, in my opinion, maybe the only bill that has ever been passed that has the opportunity to push back on out-of-control bureaucracy by making there be a financial impact statement produced for every rule that comes down the road and making them count the cost,” he said. “Is this really worth it? Just because we can regulate it doesn’t mean we should.” 

In the interview, he called regulations “stealth taxes” that cost taxpayer money. He looks at regulations as investments; if taxpayers aren’t getting a return on that investment, there’s a problem. 

Zenger also worked on a bill to limit social media use for North Carolinians under 16. If passed, the bill would ban certain “addictive” social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram from allowing children under 14 to create accounts and require parental consent for 14 and 15-year olds. 

Zenger told Spectrum News that he’s worried kids will become more isolated without some regulation. 

“Oftentimes, you’ll get movement in the right direction, but people do just as much as they have to but not any more than they need to,” he said. “And we would kind of like to raise that bar a little bit and make them do a little more.”

In late August, social media company Meta agreed to a $17 billion settlement over their platform’s addictive design. 

Where North and Zenger differ

While Zenger legislated, North prepared. This time around, House District 74 is labeled a R+3 district, or Republican-leaning. 

According to the latest campaign finance data, North raised $475,000 to Zenger’s $287,000 through June. She said her campaign’s momentum is “off the charts.” More people know her name, and they like the energy she brings to the conversation. She said she’s “not about labels,” but instead focused on “people first.” 

Voters have expressed concern about healthcare access and rising costs, she said. But they’re also generally fed up with polarized politics. 

“One of the most interesting things is that people are very tired of politics with politicians and the anger, and so people have said, ‘You’re like a breath of fresh air,’” North said.

North stands apart from Zenger on a variety of issues. He supports the expanded Opportunity Scholarships, vouchers parents can use to pay for private school tuition. In a social media post, he said he’s learned as a father of four that all kids learn differently, and more options allow parents to make the best choices for them. North wants the scholarship program to include income caps, and isn’t confident that the money is leading to better student outcomes. 

“Public money is supposed to be spent for public products, public schools,” she said. “We all invest in that, and so there’s got to be some accountability and guardrails.” 

If elected, North wants to raise teacher pay more, and restore master’s pay. 

The two candidates also disagree on how to approach tax policy. Zenger labeled North “the tax collector’s best friend” in social media posts due to her opposition to two constitutional amendments: one that would permanently cap income tax rate at 3.5% and another that would direct the legislature to set some sort of property tax levy limit on counties and municipalities. 

Zenger said the amendments help hold governments accountable. North said she doesn’t support “wasteful spending” or want to raise taxes, but doesn’t think the constitutional amendments are the right vehicle for tax reform. 

“We’re going to have to collaborate, and again, we need balance of power in order to do that,” she said. 

Finally, North said Zenger has tried to take away local control. 

As a legislator, Zenger sponsored House Bill 765, which adds more rules about how local governments make development and permitting decisions. Specifically, it requires zoning decisions to be justified with objective data as opposed to general preferences. It also would give developers more room to sue local governments and boards over rezoning or development request denials. 

North connected the bill to a dispute between Zenger’s development company and the Lewisville Town Council and planning board dating back to 2020. His company, Solomon Development, wanted to build a four-story, multi-family building with a restaurant on two parcels of land. They were denied. They tried again in 2021, with two stories. The planning board accepted the proposal, but the town council rejected it again. In 2023, the town bought the parcels of land for $1.975 million in a settlement to avoid a threatened $8 million lawsuit over the development decision. 

In a statement, Solomon Development told the Clemmons Courier at the time that the land had been zoned for multi-family use for nearly two decades, and that the denial was not based on facts, but rather “personal opinions and improper political motives.” 

“I guess it’s nice to become a millionaire off your constituents, but like that’s not the kind of person I want representing me,” North said. 

‘We can cross party lines’ 

Before knocking on the first voter’s door on a recent Saturday afternoon, North adjusted her cowgirl hat. A woman answered, one of her kids peeking behind her. North introduced herself, smiling brightly, and asked what was on the voter’s mind.

The voter told her she was a veteran public school teacher, frustrated with the state’s level of public education funding. While teachers got a raise in the recently passed budget, they weren’t retroactive for the year spent waiting for a budget, and veteran teacher raises barely constituted a cost-of-living increase, the voter said. 

While the voter was a registered Democrat, she said a lot of her teacher friends are Republicans. This year, though, they’ve told her they’re voting blue because of state and federal funding decisions. After about 10 minutes, North said her goodbyes and continued along the street. She made a note in her canvassing app — this time, she’s got the full weight of the state Democratic Party behind her. 

A few doors later, North knocked on another registered Democrat’s door. An older woman answered, but said she was voting for Republicans up and down the ballot to support President Donald Trump. The Democratic Party had gone too far left, she said, and she didn’t like how angry and disrespectful politics felt. 

North listened, and then told her about a sign she’d seen earlier on the side of the road that said, “We can cross party lines.” She encouraged the voter to consider that, and promised that she was loyal to the community, not a particular party. 

She will need voters to heed that advice if she wants to win a seat in the North Carolina General Assembly. 

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