Lewis enters U.S. Senate race

ROXBORO -- Democrat Ken Lewis entered the U.S. Senate race Sunday, using his kin's traditional homestead as imagery to evoke his family's journey up from slavery to the middle class.

Lewis, a Harvard-educated corporate attorney from Chapel Hill, vowed to support those policies that would help other families pursue the American dream, just as it enabled his family to succeed beyond the farm.

"That arc of progress that begins right here in Person County at the end of Outlaw Road, really defines who I am and leads me to announce my candidacy for the U.S. Senate," Lewis told more than 100 family and friends, as he stood on a platform by a tobacco barn.

Lewis, 48, sharply criticized Republican Sen. Richard Burr, the man he hopes to replace in November 2010, portraying him as someone tied to insurance interests and who voted against providing money needed to stimulate the economic recovery.

Before he can face Burr, Lewis must win the Democratic Senate primary. He faces a veteran Democratic figure in Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. Former state Sen. Cal Cunningham of Lexington seems poised to enter the race, and there could be other candidates before the filing period ends in February.

Lewis is making his first try for political office, although he has worked in a number of campaigns, including last year's presidential effort of Barack Obama and the two Senate campaigns of former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt in the 1990s.

Former state Chief Justice Henry Frye, who attended the event, said Lewis faced a difficult campaign, but one he could win.

"He is well prepared," Frye said. "He is going about it right."

Although Lewis grew up in Winston-Salem, the son of a prominent Winston-Salem State University professor, he wished to emphasize his family's rural roots. He said it was on that 40-acre tobacco farm that he heard his grandmother tell stories about her mother who was born into slavery.

Lewis said there is a 1993 photograph of his 100-year-old grandmother with his 3-month-old daughter.

"My grandmother could touch the hand of slavery right here in North Carolina, and with her right hand she would touch the hand of my now 16-year-old daughter who is growing up in a North Carolina with Beverly Perdue in the governor's mansion and Barack Obama in the White House," Lewis said.

"That kind of progress didn't just happen," he said. "It can only if people of good will, people of all races and regions and faiths and beliefs, straight and gay, had a vision of the future and worked toward making that vision of reality."

Lewis said while government can't solve all problems, "smart government" can provide opportunities to help people improve themselves.

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