Richard Burr

Richard Burr
Junior Senator from North Carolina
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 2005 Serving with Elizabeth Dole
Preceded by	John Edwards
Succeeded by	Incumbent (2011)
Born	November 30 1955 (1955--) (age 51) Charlottesville, Virginia
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Brooke F. Burr
Alma mater	Wake Forest University
Religion	Methodist

Richard Mauze Burr (born November 30, 1955) is a United States Senator from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A Republican, Burr represented North Carolina's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for five terms, and was elected to represent North Carolina as a U.S. Senator in the 2004 election. He defeated Democratic Party nominee Erskine Bowles in the open seat contest.

Background

Burr was born in Charlottesville, Virginia to Martha Gillum and Rev. David Horace Burr.^[1] He graduated from Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, N.C. in 1974 and earned a B.A. from Wake Forest University in 1978. Burr was on the school football team at both Reynolds High School and Wake Forest. He is a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Prior to running for Congress, Burr worked for 17 years as a sales manager for Carswell Distributing Company - a distributor of lawn equipment.^[2] In 1992, Burr ran against incumbent Democrat Stephen L. Neal, losing the general election by a small percentage. He ran again in 1994, and was elected to Congress. Burr is a board member of Brenner Children's Hospital, as well as of the group Idealliance - a group of local, academic, and government officials working to expand North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad Research Park, which involves bio-hazard and chemical, vaccines research.^[3] yo Burr cited concern for America's future as a motivator for his entry into politics. The son of a prominent minister, Burr was first elected to Congress in 1994. Burr was a businessman in Winston-Salem prior to his political career.

In 1984, Burr married Brooke Fauth; the couple has two sons.

Burr is a distant cousin of Aaron Burr; perhaps because of Burr's notorious reputation, he is only the second person with his last name to win election to Congress (the first was the presumably unrelated Albert G. Burr), and the first Burr in the Senate since the notorious Vice President.^[4]

Election to Senate

In July 2004, Burr won the Republican primary to seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat John Edwards. He faced Democrat Erskine Bowles and Libertarian Tom Bailey.

Burr won the election by five percentage points. Bowles's and Burr's combined campaign expenditures totaled over 26 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive Senate races in the country. Burr raised more money from political action committees, $2.8 million, than any other Senate candidate in 2004, primarily from the business community. Of the 100 largest companies in America, at least 72 contributed to Burr. Those included the PACs for such corporations as Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Ford, General Electric and ChevronTexaco. ^{[citation needed]}

Burr has strongly supported the policies of the Bush administration, publicly saying that President Bush "is right 96% of the time."^[5] Like Bush, Burr is pro-life, supports the death penalty, and favors a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. In May 2007, he was one of fourteen Senators to vote against the Iraq War funding bill despite his strong support of the war, due to his opposition to the clauses of the bill that provide for an increase in domestic spending and assistance. ^[6] On June 26, 2007, Burr voted in favor of cloture for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007. Two days later he voted against cloture.^[7]) (S. 1639)^[8].

According to www.congress.org, in 2007 Burr was the 86^th most powerful Senator out of 100 (37^th among Senate Republicans).^[9]

Endorsements

Sen. Burr endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), for the 2008 Presidential Election, stating his confidence in McCain's leadership and style of governing.^[10]

Bioshield Two

Burr is the sponsor of Senate bill 1973, the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005, nicknamed "Bioshield Two", which he says will give the Department of Health and Human Services "additional authority and resources to partner with the private sector to rapidly develop drugs and vaccines." Critics have stated that this bill would eliminate current regulatory and legal safeguards applied to vaccines. In addition, they state the bill is being pushed through Congress without giving voters the chance to make their objections known to their elected officials.^[11]

Electoral History

Footnotes

External links

• United States Senator Richard Burr official Senate site
• Richard Burr at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Federal Election Commission — Richard M. Burr campaign finance reports and data
• Inside.Pisd Biography and Blog on Inside.pisd
• On the Issues — Richard Burr issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Richard Burr campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Richard M. Burr (NC)
  • Project Vote Smart Biography
  • Campaign Finances
  • Issue Positions
  • Voting record
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Richard Burr profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Richard Burr voting record
• Burr for Senate official campaign site

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