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Press Release
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Carol Teal-(919) 834-9008
March 13, 2008
Lillian’s List announces Endorsement of three more NEW 2008 Candidates
Raleigh, NC – Lillian’s List of North Carolina announces the following endorsements of candidates for the North Carolina General Assembly:
North Carolina State Senate
Kathy Taft is running for Senate District 5 (Greene, Pitt, and Wayne counties), an open seat currently held by Democratic Senator John Kerr. Kathy lives in Greenville and has four children. She is the Executive Director of Communities in Schools of Pitt County and is serving her second eight-year term on the State Board of Education. She earned her BA at East Carolina University and has lived in Pitt County for 30 years.
North Carolina State House
Barbara Garrity-Blake is running for House District 13 (Carteret and Jones counties) against incumbent Republican Pat McElraft. Barbara lives in Gloucester with her husband, Bryan, and has three children. She taught at East Carolina University for nine years and is currently a self employed contract social science researcher who served two terms on the NC Marine Fisheries Commission. She received her BA in English and Anthropology from Florida State University and her MA and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Virginia.
Jane Whilden is running for House District 116 (Buncombe County), an open seat currently held by freshman Republican Representative Charles Thomas. Jane lives in Asheville with her husband, David, and has three children. She recently resigned as Director of the Western Office of the Governor so that she can campaign full time. Jane attended Mary Washington College and received her BA in Sociology from UNC Chapel Hill.
Lillian’s List of NC proudly endorses these excellent candidates and will recommend them to our statewide membership for support. Lillian’s List of NC will announce the endorsement of incumbent Democratic women in the weeks to follow.
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Named for Lillian Exum Clement, the first woman elected to the General Assembly in North Carolina, as well as the first woman elected to any state legislature in the South, Lillian’s List is an independent political committee working to elect pro-choice, Democratic women to the General Assembly in North Carolina. Organized in 1997, Lillian’s List has now helped elect a total of 19 new Democratic women legislators when they ran the first time.
A Buncombe County lawyer, Lillian Exum Clement defeated two men in 1920 before the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. The day she was sworn in, Clement told a reporter from the Raleigh News & Observer, “I want to blaze a trail for other women. I know that years from now there will be many other women in politics, but you have to start a thing.”
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