Press Release

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                           Contact:   Carol Teal-(919) 210-2776

January 30, 2008                                                                                                        

Lillian’s List announces Endorsement of first three 2008 Candidates

Raleigh, NC - Lillian’s List of North Carolina announces the following endorsements for candidates for the North Carolina General Assembly:

            Rep. Angela Bryant              House District 7        Representing Halifax and Nash Counties

            Rep. Tricia Cotham              House District 100     Representing Mecklenburg County

            Rep. Annie Mobley               House District 5        Representing Hertford, Bertie,

                                                                                                 Perquimans and Gates Counties

Representatives Bryant, Cotham and Mobley were all appointed to serve in the NC General Assembly in 2007 to fill vacant seats.  They will all be running for election for the first time in 2008.

Representative Angela Bryant is the Senior Consultant and Co-Founder of VISIONS Inc. that provides management, organizational development, community development, multiculturalism and diversity consulting services.  She was admitted to practice law in 1976 and is a former Deputy Commissioner with the NC Industrial Commission, former Administrative Law Judge and former Trustee for the UNC Board of Governors.  This session she served on the Election Laws and Campaign Finance Reform Committee, among others and served as Vice-Chair of the Insurance Committee and University Board of Governor’s Nominating Committee. 

Representative Tricia Cotham is an Assistant Principal in the Mecklenburg County Public School system and the youngest member to serve in the NC General Assembly.  This session she served on the Education Committee and the House Select Committee on Street Gang Prevention. 

Representative Annie Mobley is retired from the Administrative Office of the Courts.  She is a recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine for her service in Government.  This session she served as Vice-Chair of the Juvenile Justice Committee and the Agribusiness and Agricultural Economy Committee. 

Lillian’s List of NC proudly endorses these Representatives and will recommend them to our state-wide membership for support in 2008.  These incumbent legislators who will be running for election for the first time are in a special category and for that reason we are announcing these endorsements prior to the end of the filing period on February 28, 2008.  Lillian’s List of NC will announce the endorsement of other new candidates and support of other incumbents after the close of the filing period.   

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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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