Incumbents prevailed in local races for the N.C. General Assembly, with one race nearly repeating its closeness from two years ago.

All vote totals are unofficial. Local boards of election will canvass ballots Nov. 14. The last day to file an election protest is Nov. 18.

Incumbent state Sen. Bill Cook, a Republican, held off Democrat Stan White in the contest to determine who will represent N.C. Senate District 1 in the N.C. General Assembly for the next two-year term, which begins in early 2015. Cook defeated White in 2012 in an extremely close election.

“Hard work — hard work, and I had some of the best help you could imagine. I had some really good people helping me, one of them being my wife,” Cook said Tuesday night.

The senator knows what he wants to work on when the General Assembly meets next year.

“Like I’ve said from the beginning, I’m going to work on our economy, jobs and education.”

Cook and White waged a closely fought campaign, with Cook’s camp calling White a “tax and spend” liberal. White’s campaign painted Cook as someone willing to bring garbage from other states to eastern North Carolina.

With 61 of the district’s 84 precincts reporting, Cook had 25,064 votes to White’s 22,327 votes. Cook carried Beaufort, Dare, Currituck and Camden counties. White carried Hyde, Pasquotank and Gates counties. As of 9:50 p.m. Tuesday, Perquimans County had not reported its vote totals.

In Beaufort County, Cook collected 9,527 votes to White’s 7,892 votes.

District 1 includes Beaufort, Hyde, Dare, Currituck, Perquimans, Pasquotank, Camden and Gates counties.

The 2012 Senate District 1 election, in which Cook, appointed to replace Sen. Marc Basnight, who retired as president pro tempore of the Senate, lost his Senate seat, was a close one.

It took almost a month after Election Day in 2012 to determine who won the contest for the District 1 seat. After several hand-eye recounts in the eight-county district, Cook was declared the winner after White conceded. On election night in 2012, unofficial vote totals had White with a lead of about 400 votes. After the Nov. 16, 2012, canvasses, the lead switched to Cook. That lead narrowed to 21 votes after the Nov. 25, 2012, recount.

Meanwhile, incumbent state Rep. Paul Tine, a Democrat, survived a challenge by Republican Mattie Lawson to retain his seat as the District 6 representative in the state House. Tine defeated Lawson in 2012.

“I’m proud of the race that we ran and the support that we received. I feel we ran a positive and clean race that focused on the issues for eastern North Carolina. That’s what I’m going to focus on (when the General Assembly meets next year). We need transportation and education in order to build better jobs out here,” Tine said. “That’s what we talked about during the campaign, and that’s what we will continue to work on.”

With all of the district’s 44 precincts reporting by 10:30 p.m., Tine had 16,450 votes to Lawson’s 14,244 votes. Lawson carried Beaufort County with 6,104 votes to Tine’s 5,679 votes. In their home county of Dare, Tine tallied 3,677 votes to Lawson’s 3,195 votes.

District 6 includes part of Beaufort County and all of Hyde, Dare and Washington counties. In 2012, Tine won a narrow victory over Lawson. Tine won the district by less than 500 votes, but Lawson carried Beaufort County by more than 1,600 votes.

With all of state House District 3’s 33 precincts reporting, incumbent state Rep. Michael Speciale, a Republican, held on to defeat Democratic challenger Whit Whitley. As of 10:39 p.m. Tuesday, Speciale had 14,501 votes to Whitley’s 10,475 votes. In Beaufort County, Whitley tallied 3,272 votes to Speciale’s 2,264 votes.

Speciale and Whitley reside in Craven County.

Speciale defeated former Beaufort County Commissioner Robert Cayton in 2012 to represent District 3.

The state House winners will serve two-year terms beginning in early 2015.

District 3 includes parts of Beaufort County and Craven County and all of Pamlico County.