--- title: Clay Aiken Wins Congressional Primary After Keith Crisco Dies description: Aiken won the close three-person race with 40% of the vote canonical: https://time.com/98042/clay-aiken-keith-crisco-north-carolina/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-13T19:22:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:48:54.316Z article:section: Politics og:title: Clay Aiken Would Have Won His Congressional Primary Even If The Competition Hadn't Died og:description: Aiken won the close three-person race with 40% of the vote og:url: https://time.com/98042/clay-aiken-keith-crisco-north-carolina/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1c0167ae3fad5f1/69868e6a810bbb6374c9173f/clay-aiken-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5112 og:image:height: 2876 og:image:alt: Clay Aiken speaks to supporters during an election night watch party in Holly Springs, N.C., May 6, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clay Aiken Would Have Won His Congressional Primary Even If The Competition Hadn't Died twitter:description: Aiken won the close three-person race with 40% of the vote twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1c0167ae3fad5f1/69868e6a810bbb6374c9173f/clay-aiken-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Clay Aiken Wins Congressional Primary After Opponent Dies > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler May 13, 2014 7:22 PM UTC  Clay Aiken speaks to supporters during an election night watch party in Holly Springs, N.C., May 6, 2014. Clay Aiken speaks to supporters during an election night watch party in Holly Springs, N.C., May 6, 2014. Gerry Broome—AP by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler May 13, 2014 7:22 PM UTC Former _American Idol_ contestant Clay Aiken was declared the [winner](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/clay-aiken-wins-nc-dem-congressional-primary) of a Democratic congressional primary in North Carolina, election officials said Tuesday, a day after his main competitor in the race died. Keith Crisco died Monday after suffering a fall in his home; he was 71\. The two had been vying for the Democratic nomination to take on incumbent Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers. The race had been too close to call ever since the May 6 primary election, but unofficial election results posted online showed that the singer-turned-candidate [won just over 40% of the vote](http://enr.ncsbe.gov/ElectionResults/) in the three-person race—edging his late opponent by less than 400 votes. Crisco’s campaign manager said the candidate died shortly after deciding he would concede to Aiken, the Associated Press reports. The results will become official after they are reviewed by the state election board on May 22. Aiken said he would pause his campaign out of respect for Crisco’s family and friends. > [](https://twitter.com/ClayForNC/status/465970865876635649) > [](https://twitter.com/ClayForNC/status/465970984361541633) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/98042/clay-aiken-keith-crisco-north-carolina/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/98042/clay-aiken-keith-crisco-north-carolina/"},"headline":"Clay Aiken Wins Congressional Primary After Opponent Dies","datePublished":"2014-05-13T19:22:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:48:54.316Z","description":"The former American Idol contestant was declared victor in a Democratic congressional primary, with 40% of the vote, a day after his main competitor Keith Crisco suffered a fall and died","url":"https://time.com/98042/clay-aiken-keith-crisco-north-carolina/","keywords":["2014 Election","Congress","North Carolina"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1c0167ae3fad5f1/69868e6a810bbb6374c9173f/clay-aiken-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1c0167ae3fad5f1/69868e6a810bbb6374c9173f/clay-aiken-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Clay Aiken speaks to supporters during an election night watch party in Holly Springs, N.C., May 6, 2014.","caption":"Clay Aiken speaks to supporters during an election night watch party in Holly Springs, N.C., May 6, 2014.","creditText":"Gerry Broome—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2014-election/","name":"2014 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/98042/clay-aiken-keith-crisco-north-carolina/","name":"Clay Aiken Wins Congressional Primary After Opponent Dies"}}]}] ```