Lauch Faircloth
| Duncan McLauchlin "Lauch" Faircloth | |
 | |
| In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Terry Sanford |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | John Edwards |
5th North Carolina
Secretary of Commerce | |
| In office 1977–1985 | |
| Governor | James Baxter Hunt, Jr. |
| Preceded by | Donald R. Beason |
| Succeeded by | Howard Haworth |
| Born | January 14, 1928 Sampson County, North Carolina. |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democrat-turned-Republican (1990) |
| Spouse(s) | Nancy Bryan Faircloth (divorced) |
| Children | Ann Faircloth Dufour Two grandchildren |
| Residence | Clinton, Sampson County[1] |
Military Service
| |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1954–1955 |
Duncan McLauchlin Faircloth (born January 14, 1928), known as Lauch Faircloth (pronounced LOCK), is a former one-term Republican United States Senator for his native state of North Carolina. His term was sandwiched between Democrat Senators Terry Sanford and John Edwards. Faircloth served as Secretary of Commerce in the administration of Democratic Governor James Baxter Hunt, Jr. (born 1937). In 1984, Faircloth ran for governor, while Hunt ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate against conservative Republican Jesse Helms in the nation's most high-profile Senate race that year.
Political life
Before his Senate service, Faircloth was a prominent hog farmer in Sampson County in southern North Carolina.. He had entered the political realm as a Conservative Democrat because he opposed regulations targeting large hog farmers. Years earlier, he worked as a driver for Democratic Senator William Kerr Scott (1896–1958). An early supporter of Terry Sanford's 1960 gubernatorial campaign, Sanford named Faircloth to the state highway commission. Faircloth helped Robert Walter "Bob" Scott (1929–2009), a son of W. Kerr Scott, in Scott's successful bid for the governorship in 1968 over the Republican U.S. Representative James Carson Gardner of Rocky Mount in Nash County. Scott named Faircloth chairman of the highway commission, and he subsequently served as Secretary of Commerce in the Hunt administration.
Faircloth lost his bid for the Democratic gubernatorial in 1984 and considered running for the Senate seat being vacated in 1986 by Republican Senator John Porter East in 1986, but he was discouraged from doing so by the entry of Sanford, who went on to win the race against appointed James Thomas "Jim" Broyhill (born 1927), a part of the Broyhill Furniture Company, who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 to 1986. After Broyhill won the Republican nomination to succeed East, who committed suicide in June 1986, then Republican Governor James Grubbs Martin appointed Broyhill to fill the remaining six months vacated by East. Broyhill then lost the general election to Terry Sanford.
In 1990, after forty years as a Democrat, Faircloth switched his party registration and began preparations to seek the Republican Senate nomination in 1992. He carried the support of Senator Helms's political organization, and defeated in the primary Charlotte Mayor Sue Wilkins Myrick (born 1941). Faircloth's opponent in the general election was former ally Terry Sanford, whom Faircloth then branded as a tax-and-spend liberal even though Sanford had helped Faircloth raise money for Faircloth's failed gubernatorial bid in 1984, when Hunt ran for the U.S. Senate against Helms. Faircloth was said to have become agitated after he learned that Sanford had dismissed Faircloth's chances in a statewide contest.[2] Faircloth beat Sanford, 1,297, 892 (50 percent) to 1,194,015 (46 percent), a margin in excess of 100,000 votes in an otherwise Democratic year nationally.
Faircloth lost his bid for a second Senate term in 1998, a Democrat-leaning year that prompted the resignation of Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to Democrat wealthy trial lawyer John Edwards, 1,029,237 votes (51 percent) to 945,943 (47percent). Faircloth told supporters on election night that he felt "that I let you down...because we should have won."[3]
Personal life
Faircloth married the former Nancy Bryan (c. 1930 – January 2010), a native of New York City who was reared in Greensboro, North Carolina. They had a daughter, Ann Faircloth Dufour and two grandchildren. They later divorced, and she moved from his city of Clinton to the capital city of Raleigh.[4]
References
- ↑ Duncan McLauchlin "Lauch" Faircloth. Our Campaigns. Retrieved on August 2, 2021..
- ↑ Howard E. Covington, Jr., and Marion A. Ellis, Terry Sanford: Politics, Progress, and Outrageous Ambitions (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1999), p. 489.
- ↑ North Carolina Senate - November 3, 1998 (cnn.com), accessed August 2, 2021.
- ↑ Nancy Faircloth Obituary (2010) - Raleigh, NC - The News & Observer (legacy.com), accessed August 2, 2021.
