Triangle congressional candidate Bo Hines moves to district a month out from election

Voter registration data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections shows Hines changed his residential address on April 22 from a condo in downtown Winston-Salem to a property in Fuquay-Varina. Real estate listings show Hines’ condo was put on sale Thursday.

Rob Burgess, a spokesman for Hines’ campaign, said the aspiring congressman is renting the Fuquay-Varina property.

“He has signed a 12-month lease and him and his wife look forward to building their home in Fuquay,” Burgess said.

North Carolina congressional candidates aren’t required to live in the area they seek to represent. Nonetheless, candidates in the race have accused Hines of district-shopping.

Kelly Daughtry, a top Republican candidate in the race who practices law in Johnston County with her father, longtime Republican state lawmaker Leo Daughtry, has taken to the airwaves and social media to criticize Hines over his residence.

“Hines has continued to switch districts to find one that's easiest to win," Daughtry said in an interview Friday afternoon. "It's this type of political maneuvering [and] moving here to win an election that's what's wrong with politics these days."

Burgess responded by questioning Daughtry's conservatism.

"Republican primary voters want nothing to do with liberal Kelly Daughtry and she knows it," he said.

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The move to Fuquay-Varina is not Hines’ first time in the district. He spent a season playing football at North Carolina State University, lived in the area at the time and voted in Wake County for the 2014 general election.

After his yearlong stint at N.C. State, he transferred to Yale University to further his political ambitions. He later worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and returned to North Carolina to earn a law degree at Wake Forest University.

Hines spent much of 2021 and early 2022 campaigning in multiple districts in the surrounding Greensboro area before settling on a seat that now includes all of Johnston County and parts of Wake, Wayne and Harnett counties.

Shortly after turning 25—the minimum legal age required to serve in the U.S. House—he filed in January 2021 for a northwest seat in the 5th Congressional District outside Charlotte held by U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx. A tweet of his announcing the run has since been deleted.

After U.S. Rep. Ted Budd announced his bid for U.S. Senate, Hines adjusted his candidate filing in May to replace Budd in the 13th District seat near Greensboro. After lawmakers in November passed a new map as part of the redistricting process, Hines filed for a similar district surrounding Greensboro.

"He didn't move to District 13 when he graduated from Yale, and he's only in District 13 after shopping for all the districts," Daughtry said.

Hines has attributed much of his movement to changes that took place in North Carolina’s monthslong court battle over the drawing of congressional lines.

“Carpetbagging is when you move from a different state into a new place and try to run for Congress because it's easy,” Hines said in an interview last month. “We're actually running in probably the most contentious primary in the state because we want to represent this community.”

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Hines faces seven GOP primary opponents, including Daughtry, who is running a largely self-financed operation, with nearly $2.2 million in personal loans to her own campaign.

Other Republican candidates include political newcomer Kent Keirsey, former U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers, businessman DeVan Barbour, businessman Chad Slotta, physician Jessica Morel and lawyer Kevin Alan Wolff.