Matt Coffay, a Democrat who earlier this year announced he would seek the party's nomination for North Carolina's 11th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, has announced he is dropping out of the race. Coffay made the announcement in a Facebook post, saying that he's had "sudden personal circumstances occur that are beyond my control" that have "made it impossible for me to move forward while addressing these acute personal needs in order to run the campaign you deserve."
Phillip Price is now the lone Democrat running for the party's nomination to take on 3-term incumbent Republican Mark Meadows. Defeating the Freedom Caucus chair will be a tough task for Democrats. Meadows won last year's election with 64% of the vote. In addition, the 11th district was heavily redrawn in 2011 to the benefit of Republicans, as the Democratic strongholds of Asheville and Buncombe County were split into both the 10th and 11th Congressional districts. That allowed Meadows to take over the seat previously held by Democrat Heath Shuler.
