Virginia Foxx
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Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
Virginia Foxx (born June 29, 1943)is a Republican Congresswoman from the 5th Congressional district of North Carolina (map (http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/nc05_109.gif)) first elected in 2004. Due to the highly partisan makeup of the district (only the 10th district is considered more Republican), the primary quickly became the most expensive and one of the nastiest elections in the history of North Carolina. Foxx was the only woman in a field of 8 candidates; most of her ugliest spats occurred with Vernon Robinson. Robinson skewered all of his opponents as being the biggest liberals on the planet, and Foxx, one of the most conservative votes in North Carolina's legislature, was attacked for taking money from a gay rights group. Foxx explained that the group had given her a small donation during her first campaign for the state senate, but never did again after they saw her voting record. Robinson lost campaign staffers when Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie sent them letters threatening them with the end of their political careers if they did not resign from the Robinson campaign (whether or not he was doing this at the behest of the Foxx campaign is not known). Although Robinson was the highest vote-getter on primary night and heavily outspent Foxx, she decisively defeated him (55%-45%) in the runoff. By contrast, her general election campaign against Jim Harrell, Jr., which she won easily (59%-41%), was mostly cordial.
Foxx is a former member of the North Carolina General Assembly where she represented the state's forty-fifth Senate district, including constituents in Alleghany, Ashe, Caldwell, Watauga and Wilkes counties. A business owner from Banner Elk, North Carolina, Foxx served a total of five terms, spanning 1995 to 2004, in the North Carolina Senate, before being elected to Congress.
External link
- '04 campaign site (http://www.virginiafoxx.com/)
| Preceded by: Richard Burr (R) | U.S. House of Representatives North Carolina 5th district 2005-Present | Succeeded by: incumbent |