For what may be the first time, Sanford produces a Congressional nominee
When the dust settled on March 3 — primary Election Day in North Carolina — Democratic candidate for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District Paul Barringer came out on top of his race.
Someone was always going to win, of course, but Barringer’s victory stood out because it marks the first time in recent memory — and maybe ever — that Sanford has produced a Congressional nominee from either of the major parties.
Jimmy Love Sr. sought the Democratic nomination for the Congressional seat covering Sanford in the early 1970s. But Love, who served in the state House prior to that run and again in the mid 2000s, came up short in that primary. Sanford has produced other political figures who both sought and held higher office — including Dennis Wicker, who served as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor from 1992 to 2000, and Robert Reives II, who is from Sanford and now represents Chatham County in the state House (and is Democratic leader in that chamber) — but we haven’t been able to fi…