robert pittenger, a republican, was elected to represent the district in 2012. in the 2016 election, pittenger was challenged for the republican nomination by mark harris and todd johnson. pittenger won the nomination, defeating harris by 134 votes. questions were raised about the role of convicted perjurer and campaign operative mccrae dowless, when johnson won 221 of the 226 bladen county absentee votes cast in the race. pittenger was re-elected in 2016 over democratic party nominee christian cano by over 54,000 votes.