Kate Barr, a candidate in the GOP primary for North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District, openly admits she’s not a Republican.
“I’m not a Republican. But I am running in the Republican primary,” Barr writes on her campaign website.
“Because I’m an American and I care about my community. And running as a Republican is the only way to kick these corrupt cowards out of office. Your leaders *should* represent you. You *should* be able to vote them out when they do a bad job. (Like they’re doing right now.),” she explained.
“Why not run as a Democrat in the general election then?” she asked.
“Instead, they’ve rigged the maps to make sure the Republican candidate will win the general election every time,” Barr stated.
In a recent interview, Barr discussed her move to join the GOP primary.
“I’m not a real Republican,” she said.
“Like, I am telling people the truth. I knock on a door and say, ‘I am running in the Republican primary, but I am not a Republican, I am a progressive,’” Barr continued.
“I’m running as a Republican in the Republican primary for Congressional District 14 because that is where the actual competition happens in our gerrymandered district,” she added.
“The place I can win is as a fake Republican,” she commented.
Check it out:
Kate Barr in NC14 showing her true intent.
Be aware of the games these people play. pic.twitter.com/YndUnbQTa4
— Margo (@MargoinWNC) February 9, 2026
Barr wrote on her campaign website:
Wait – so the PRIMARY decides who goes to the US House?
The general election has already been decided. So – the primary is the only competition for this job.
So only registered Republicans can run in the primary?
Yep! That’s why I changed my voter registration to Republican. On Nov 6, I filed the paperwork to challenge Tim Moore in the Republican US House primary.
What does it all mean?
I’m running in the primary with an R next to my name because that’s how you get an actual choice on March 3rd. And you, like every voter, deserve to have your voice heard and your vote counted. That’s what democracy is all about. Let’s kick these corrupt chickens out.
According to NOTUS, Barr’s unconventional strategy is her attempt to combat gerrymandered congressional districts.
Since no one reads things these days, here’s what I said in November about Kate Barr’s farcical campaign.#NCPOL #NC14 https://t.co/OqfJdnZtQM https://t.co/vY1EKOUUWt pic.twitter.com/HzewXqu1RT
— Matt Mercer (@mattmercer) February 11, 2026
More from NOTUS:
The national redistricting battle is making more districts in the country effectively noncompetitive. North Carolina’s current congressional map is drawn to favor Republican voters in 10 of its 14 districts. The state passed a new map last month for 2026 that advantages Republicans along the state’s coast — a district currently represented by a Democrat, Rep. Don Davis.
States like Indiana, Texas, Ohio and Missouri are heeding President Donald Trump’s call to secure the House majority through new congressional maps. Democrats are jumping into the fray, too. Last week, California voters approved doing their own redistricting to counter Republicans.
Barr’s campaign is both a longshot and a sign of the times. There’s been a growth in unorthodox campaigns in recent cycles. More independents are running, and gaining momentum, across the country. Political strategists attribute this to dissatisfaction with both parties. Barr is part of this trend, they say.
“This is a moment where we need a wider range of candidates that are taking creative and unorthodox approaches, whether that is independents running and shedding partisan labels entirely like you saw with Dan Osborn in Nebraska, and like I think we’ll see with an increasing number of candidates, or people with heterodox views like Kate Barr, deciding to change their partisan affiliation and running in primaries instead of general elections,” said Asher Hildebrand, a former Democratic operative and a professor of public policy at Duke University.
Barr ran for a seat in the statehouse in 2024 with the slogan “Kate Barr Can’t Win.” She embraced her inevitable failure to call attention to the state’s gerrymandered map. She lost, badly. This time, she’s actually trying to win.
