Fresh off a narrow but historic victory in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda (D) announced Friday that his father, Richard Neece Ojeda, had died just days after the election. In a post on X, the congressman-elect revealed that his father had waged a long battle with Parkinson's disease and seemed to hold on until his son's race was decided.
"For years, my dad battled Parkinson's disease. On Election Night, I got to tell him, 'Pop, we won.' This morning, he passed away," Ojeda wrote. He added, "A part of me believes he held on just long enough to see his son make it to Congress. He won't be there when I'm sworn in. But I know he'll be standing right beside me."
Ojeda's victory over Rep. Richard Hudson (R), who chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee, came in a district that stretches across Hoke, Moore, Randolph and Alamance counties, plus parts of Guilford, Cumberland and Chatham counties. According to Decision Desk HQ, Ojeda captured just over 51 percent of the vote to Hudson's nearly 49 percent. The win marks the first time a Democrat has carried the seat since 1963.
The upset in the 9th District tracks with a broader Democratic wave that swept through the midterms. The party seized control of both the House and the Senate, racking up wins in key battlegrounds nationwide. In North Carolina, Ojeda's triumph over a sitting NRCC chairman dealt a particularly sharp blow to Republican hopes of holding the line. The flipped seat fits a pattern seen elsewhere, as Democratic mayors moved to limit ICE cooperation and state-level officials recalibrated after the GOP's losses.
In a separate post Friday night, Ojeda offered a fuller tribute to his father's life and career. "Richard Neece Ojeda lived an extraordinary life," he wrote, noting that his father "traveled the world and lived a life of service that started in the US Air Force and continued after graduating from the Mayo Clinic where he was commissioned as an officer in the US Army."
After his military service, the elder Ojeda spent 55 years practicing anesthesia. He was, according to his son, "the first man in Logan County history to perform an epidural at Logan Regional Hospital in Logan, WV." That detail underscores a family rooted in West Virginia, a state where Democrats have struggled in recent years. The passing of Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia's last Democratic dynasty figure, earlier this year served as a reminder of the party's fading fortunes there, making Ojeda's win in neighboring North Carolina all the more notable.
Ojeda closed his morning post by dedicating his congressional term to his father. "Rest easy, Daddy. I'll take it from here. These next two years are for you."
The congressman-elect's victory is part of a larger story of Democratic gains in unlikely places. As the party prepares to take control of Congress, it faces the challenge of translating electoral wins into legislative action. Republicans, meanwhile, are already bracing for a wave of oversight from the incoming majority, with House GOP leaders urging their chairs to prepare for Democratic probes. For Ojeda, however, the moment is deeply personal—a win that came just in time for his father to witness, and a loss that will shadow his first days in Washington.
