A North Carolina Democrat who prided herself on a “can’t win” attitude last November is making an about-face on her electoral chances — by switching to the Republican Party.
Kate Barr, who ran an intentionally hopeless state senate campaign in 2024 to highlight gerrymandering in her state, is switching to the Republican Party to have a better shot at beating Rep. Tim Moore (R-NC) in a primary.
She says she’s not compromising her values, but she wants voters to have a choice.
“This is about holding corrupt leaders accountable, no matter what letter they have next to their name.” Barr said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “I’m not pretending that I suddenly woke up a Republican. I’m the same person I’ve always been. My values haven’t changed. My message hasn’t changed. Voters deserve to have their voices heard. Full stop.”
Her campaign slogan in 2024 read, “Clear eyes, full heart, can’t win.”
She then lost to NC state Sen. Vickie Sawyer 64.7% to 35.3%. This time, she’s banking on Republican and unaffiliated voters turning out for her in the March primary against the freshman Moore.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Barr said she’s running for Congress to drive her anti-gerrymandering message to the federal level.
“The fight is bigger than [the state Senate,” she said. “Our state legislature is a disaster from a map perspective, but most of what I’m seeing as a negative impact in district 14 is coming from the federal level.”
She said that the community of Lake Lure in North Carolina still has not received necessary federal aid from Hurricane Helene, and she wants to hold Moore accountable for that.
“The person that represents them should be fighting for that, and he’s not,” Barr said. “The only way we are going to get the politicians from both parties, who are in these safe seats and have been for years, the only way we are going to get them to pay attention is to do things like what I’m doing. To show up in ways that they don’t expect and make them work for these seats, and exact a political cost for them not listening to us.”
She said Congress needed federal fair map legislation “yesterday,” but some House members are unmotivated because they’re in safe seats.
“People who are in safe seats and don’t really have to work for their positions are unlikely to pass something like that. We’ve seen this happen through the years. I’m totally f*cking sick of it, like draw maps and don’t be afraid of a little competition,” she added.
Barr realizes that her platform will need to be expanded if she wants to run for Congress. She’s embracing ideas like raising the minimum wage, eliminating all taxes on the first $100,000 of earnings, and banning stock trading in Congress.
Several of her ideas skew to the left, with some pockets of Republican support in Congress. Barr said if she is elected, she will caucus with Republicans though they “may not like how I’m voting a fair chunk of the time.”
“Am I likely to vote for Mike Johnson to be Speaker of the House? No way,” she said. “I want to be clear that it’s not like I’ve suddenly become, you know, MAGA overnight. It’s really that I think my job is to represent the voters, and if the voters send me to Congress, I will go to Congress the way that they sent me.”
Since her last campaign, the nation has undergone a cycle of partisan redistricting entirely relevant to Barr’s platform. She’s resolute in her opposition against the partisan map-drawing, no matter who is doing it.
“If I go to Congress, I am relentlessly supporting and/or introducing fair map legislation. That’s just like, I don’t care which party is doing it, it’s wrong. We have to cut this nonsense out, because voters are supposed to be in charge,” she said.
The first obstacle she’ll have to face is Moore, who has been serving in North Carolina politics since 2003 and was state House Speaker for about a decade before joining Congress. He easily won his Republican primary in 2024 by more than 50 points before cruising to a double-digit win in the general.
The Cook Political Report has the district at an R+8 on their Partisan Voting Index, giving whoever the Republican is in 2026 a decided advantage in the general election. The primary will be in Moore’s favor.
Outside of his obvious name recognition, Moore will have a gargantuan cash advantage over Barr. He had about $1.3 million in his campaign account in the period ending Sept. 30. It appears Barr is his sole challenger so far, according to FEC data.
Barr said she doesn’t have any campaign funds yet, but is hoping to raise money “anyway” she can, legally at least, she joked. “Hoping for grassroots donors and will finally have to do some call time,” she added.
Overcoming Moore’s advantage spreads beyond money and political influence. He also had the endorsement of President Donald Trump in 2024, and is likely to have it again for 2026.
But Barr is hoping a recent financial controversy surrounding Moore can knock him down a notch.
Moore purchased up to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shares of a leveraged fund that shorts the Russell 2000 index, according to the Assembly. It’s a “sh*tty” investment according to Barr, who argued the move signals the Republican is not putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to his praise for President Donald Trump’s economy.
Barr cited the fund as a reason why she opposes Moore.
“His words were saying, ‘This is great,’ and his money was saying, ‘I don’t think this is a good idea,’ and I’m going to try and make some dollars off of it. And I just think that’s sh*tty,” she said about Moore’s rhetoric regarding the Big Beautiful Bill’s impact on the economy.
So far, the fund has been a bad bet for Moore. It has lost nearly 50% of its value within the last 6 months, with the stock market surging to new highs.
Moore also traded stocks before and after Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariffs started, creating massive volatility in the markets that month. He didn’t disclose the stock purchases until after a federal deadline.
The North Carolina House candidate continued to unload on the congressman’s financial decisions, claiming Moore has been “lining his pockets for the entire time he’s been in government,” and that “he’s one of the poster children for corruption in government.”
She won’t have to wait long to face him in an election. Barr’s primary against Moore will be on March 3, 2026. She wants to hold at least two town halls during her campaign to address voters, and hopes to address Moore as well.
Moore’s campaign disparaged Barr as an “unserious candidate.”
“Kate Barr is an unserious candidate — she’s not actually running to represent the people of North Carolina’s 14th District, this is just her latest in a string of cheap political stunts,” a Moore campaign spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “Running and losing in a Republican primary will do nothing but affirm that voters in NC-14 support the results Congressman Moore is delivering.”
While her odds to win are steep, Barr believes giving voters a choice is the most important thing.
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“So much of my work is about the work itself, not the outcome, and so simply by having given voters a choice, that’s the win to me,” Barr, who has been resolute in her push for fairer maps, said.
“I’m going to keep fighting for fair maps until we either get them or I’m in the grave,” she concluded.