CHARLOTTE, N.C. — His name is Shannon Bray. His campaign staff was one person, just him. He only spent $400 on his run but he came away with roughly 168,000 votes.
There's only a difference of 97,000 votes between Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democrat Cal Cunningham.
"None of us really come in expecting to win," said Shannon Bray, the libertarian candidate who ran to represent North Carolinians in the U.S. Senate.
Bray didn't win. It wasn't even close. However, he's happy with his small, but notable performance in the race.
"I was ecstatic," said Bray.
Currently, roughly 96,707 votes separate Sen. Tillis and Cunningham. Bray raked in 167,968 votes that some say could've made an impact on the overall race, and contributed to nobody being declared a winner yet, although Tillis has already claimed victory.
"Maybe I did take some republican votes, and maybe I did take some democratic votes, it's almost impossible to tell without me in the race, who would have gotten those," Bray said.
Bray believes half of the people who voted for him did so because they were fed up with their options on the red and blue ticket.
The number of people who voted for Bray is also far greater than the 46,363 voters who have registered libertarians in the state, as of Election Day. Mecklenburg County is home to 5,790 of them.
"We want the right to make our own choices in our homes and we don't want government interference," Bray said.
Bray said he has received calls from those blaming him for the race still in limbo, but he said, it's important those with his views are represented as well.
"The people of North Carolina chose to vote for me because the message must be resonating," he said.
Bray said his run was all an experiment, a litmus test, to see how he could do.
He admitted he never saw himself getting so much support and he now plans to run again for U.S. Senate in 2022.