Former North Carolina Sen. Lauch Faircloth dies at 95

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Former U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth of North Carolina, a one-time conservative Democrat who switched late in his career to the Republicans and then got elected to Congress, died Thursday. He was 95.

Faircloth, who served one Senate term before losing to then-unknown Democrat John Edwards in 1998, died at his home in Clinton, said Brad Crone, a former campaign aide and close friend.

Years after an unsuccessful Democratic bid for governor in 1984, Faircloth switched to the GOP and ran in 1992 against U.S. Sen. Terry Sanford, a longtime friend and former political ally. Faircloth pulled off the upset, attacking Sanford as a big-spending liberal and benefiting politically from Sanford’s health problems in the campaign’s final weeks.

While in the Senate, the millionaire businessman and Sampson County farmer was known as one of the most partisan senators, blasting Bill and Hillary Clinton and calling for the dismantling of Cabinet departments and other federal agencies.

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