Today, 28-year-old business man Ryan Watts and a 64-year-old truck driver Gerald Wong will go head-to-head for the Democratic primary in the 6th Congressional District of North Carolina.
The district where Elon is located stretches from the Virginia border down to Sanford, encompassing Alamance County and parts of Greensboro.
Wong said he is looking to bring the district back to “the Roosevelt basics, back to the Bernie Sanders idea of America.”
“I’m not looking for a paycheck, I’m not running for a career; I’m running to get the issues I care about passed through the legislature,” he said.
Watts, on the other hand, believes he will be a fresh face and wants to see a new generation of people solving today’s issues.
“What I see has been this widening gap of division and bad rhetoric, divisiveness – all those type of things holding us back from making progress,” Watts said.
This is the first time either Watts and Wong have run for office.
The winner of this election will face Republican incumbent Mark Walker in the November general election. Walker is running for his third term as representative.
Watts and Wong are concerned about Walker’s leadership in the coming years, and are determined to beat him in the November’s election.
“Mark Walker is backed by huge super PACs and all sorts of special interest money. We don’t take special interest money,” Watts said. “We are taking $100 on average chunks from the average American citizen that just wants to see progress.”
Polling places will be open today until 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit the Alamance County Board of Elections website.