Laurie Buckhout

Laurie Buckhout is the Republican nominee challenging incumbent Donald Davis in North Carolina's redrawn 1st Congressional District, a rematch of the 2024 general election, which Davis won. She is a retired U.S. Army colonel who founded and later sold a cyber and electronic warfare consulting business and served in the Pentagon's cyber policy office. Her campaign describes her as a "constitutional conservative" running on lowering costs, securing the border and strengthening national defense.[1][2][3][4]

Laurie Buckhout was born in Virginia and lives in Edenton, North Carolina, with her husband Paul, a retired Army officer; they have two sons, according to her campaign website.[1][2] She earned a bachelor's degree from James Madison University, a master's of military arts and science in national military strategy, and a master's of science in information management from Webster University.[1][5]

Buckhout was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps in 1984 and served 26 years, retiring as a colonel in 2010; according to a candidate-supplied biography, she commanded a task force in the initial attack into Iraq in 2003.[1][5][4] After retiring from the Army, she founded Corvus Consulting, which specialized in electronic warfare and cyberspace operations; it was sold to Castellum Inc. in 2019, according to SIGNAL Media.[1][5][4] She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy and was later named acting Assistant Secretary of War for cyber policy by President Trump.[2][3][4]

Buckhout was the Republican nominee in 2024 and lost the general election to Davis.[3][4] She won the March 3, 2026 Republican primary over Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck, 23,531 votes to 20,974.[3]

Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.