North Carolina
Miss North Carolina inspires Lake Norman Elementary students (Photos), Iredell Free News

BY KARISSA MILLER
Students at Lake Norman Elementary School received a special visit Friday morning from Miss North Carolina Taylor Loyd, who sang an opera song and shared her journey with them.
She sang “Poison Aria” from Rome & Juliet and “Italian Street Song.”
“A long time ago I was a student at Lake Norman Elementary,” Loyd told the students.
In fourth grade, she decided to dress up like Maria Beale Fletcher, who was Miss America from North Carolina, for her living history project.
“What is really crazy is that I dressed up like her in fourth grade. Then when I grew up I got to compete at Miss America, which was really amazing,” she said.
She told students that she sang “Amour, ranime mon courage” during the Miss North Carolina pageant.
She also shared some of her experience competing for Miss America. She was one of the three talent competition winners and finished in the top 11 in last month’s pageant in Orlando, Fla.
“I guess you think my job is sort of like being a princess,” she said. “It’s more than just posing for pictures. Being Miss North Carolina means that I get to do a lot of amazing things. I get to meet a lot of amazing people just like you.”
She showed a slide show picture of her visiting a children’s hospital.
“I like to bring toys to the children at the hospital,” she said.
One reason she likes to visit hospitals is because she likes to sing there.
“Singing is my favorite things to do and it’s very important to me,” she said.
She said it made her feel better to sing when she was sad, and that it helped her brother when he was in the hospital after a bad accident.
After working hard on singing, she auditioned for the choir in fourth grade.
“I didn’t make it into the choir and I loved to sing. I didn’t really know why,” she recalled. “Have you ever tried to do something and it didn’t turn out the way you didn’t want it to? It can be very easy to give up.”
Loyd said that she learned that everybody has a talent and hers is singing opera. She said that the first time she ever heard an opera singer was at Lake Norman Elementary.
“I decided to keep trying and not give up. If I had just given up and decided to never sing again because I wasn’t the best at singing that one song I tried to sing then I would never have ended up being Miss North Carolina,” she said.
Loyd told students to never give up on pursuing your goals and dreams.
“You have to remember to believe in yourself — you never know what you can do if you don’t do it,” she said.
Following her presentation, Principal Nichole Tilley surprised Loyd and reunited her with some of her former teachers, many of whom still teach at the school.
Related
♦ The beauty of being Taylor Loyd
Photos
North Carolina
2026 primary turnout report released for eastern NC counties; see your county’s numbers
Here are the voter turnout numbers for the 2026 primary election, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Hyde County had the highest voter turnout, while Onslow County had the lowest turnout. Check out what the voter turnout in your county was below:
BERTIE COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
31.85% (3,911 out of 12,280)
CARTERET COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
29.06% (16,543 out of 56,931)
CRAVEN COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
18.63% (14,119 out of 75,778)
DUPLIN COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
21.93% (6,981 out of 31,832)
EDGECOMBE COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
18.16% (6,428 out of 35,396)
GREENE COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
19.70% (2,147 out of 10,900)
HYDE COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
37.27% (1,123 out of 3,013)
JONES COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
25.91% (1,805 out of 6,966)
LENOIR COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
16.73% (6,251 out of 37,371)
MARTIN COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
17.61% (2,858 out of 16,228)
ONSLOW COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
11.44% (14,816 out of 129,537)
PAMLICO COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
24.03% (2,446 out of 10,180)
PITT COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
15.71% (19,429 out of 123,705)
TYRRELL COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
30.49% (723 out of 2,371)
WASHINGTON COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
28.66% (2,312 out of 8,067)
WAYNE COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
21.49% (16,408 out of 76,358)
North Carolina
Statewide tornado drill has NC schools and workplaces practicing safety
Wednesday, March 4, 2026 6:41PM
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — North Carolina schools and businesses took part in a statewide tornado drill Wednesday morning as part of Severe Weather Awareness Week.
The National Weather Service led the drill at 9:30 a.m., broadcasting it on NOAA Weather Radio and the Emergency Alert System. Schools, workplaces and households across the state were encouraged to join in.
The National Weather Service didn’t issue a follow up alert to mark the end of the drill. Instead, each school or business wrapped up once they felt they had practiced the procedures thoroughly.
Wednesday’s drill also replaced the regular weekly NOAA Weather Radio test.
SEE | New warning for parents amid new ‘fire-breathing’ social media trend
Make sure to download the ABC 11 Mobile App ABC11 North Carolina Apps for Connected TV, Mobile News, Echo
Copyright © 2026 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.
North Carolina
North Carolina Rep. Valerie Foushee holds narrow lead over challenger Nida Allam
Nida Allam in 2022; Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC) in 2025.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
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Jonathan Drake/Reuters; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee holds a narrow lead over challenger Nida Allam in the Democratic primary for North Carolina’s 4th Congressional district as ballots continue to be counted.
In a race seen as an early test of whether Democratic voters desire generational change within the party, Foushee holds a lead of just over 1,000 votes with 99% of results in so far, according to the Associated Press.
Under state law, provisional votes will be counted in the coming days in a district that includes Durham and Chapel Hill. If the election results end up within a 1% margin, Allam could request a recount.
Successfully ousting an incumbent lawmaker is often extremely difficult and rare. However, there have been recent upsets in races as some voters are calling for new leaders and several sitting members of Congress face primary challengers this cycle.
Allam, a 32-year-old Durham County Commissioner, is running to the left of Foushee, 69, framing her candidacy as part of a broader rejection of longtime Democratic norms.
On the campaign trail, Allam ran on an anti-establishment message, pledging to be a stronger fighter than Foushee in Congress, both in standing up against President Trump’s agenda and when pushing for more ambitious policy.
“North Carolina is a purple state that often gets labeled red, but we’re not a red state,” she told NPR in an interview last month, emphasizing the need to address affordability concerns. “We are a state of working-class folks who just want their elected officials to champion the issues that are impacting them.”
She drew a contrast with the congresswoman on immigration, voicing support for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Foushee has declined to go that far, advocating instead for ICE to be defunded and for broader reforms to the federal immigration system.
Allam also clashed with Foushee over U.S. policy towards Israel. As a vocal opponent of Israel’s war in Gaza, Allam swore off campaign donations from pro-Israel lobbying groups, such as AIPAC, and repeatedly criticized Foushee for previously accepting such funds.
Though Foushee announced last year that she would not accept AIPAC donations this cycle, she and Allam continued to spar over the broader role of outside spending in the race.
Their matchup comes four years after the candidates first squared off in 2022, when Allam lost to Foushee in what became the most expensive primary in the state’s history, with outside groups spending more than $3.8 million.
However, this year is poised to break that record. Outside groups have reported spending more than $4.4 million on the primary matchup, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
WUNC’s Colin Campbell contributed to this report.
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