Durham Democrat may soon get state appointment. Some already seeking his Senate seat.
A Democratic state senator said he’s still planning to run for reelection, even though he might soon be appointed to a commission and he now has two primary challengers from within his party.
Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr., a Durham Democrat, has held the District 20 seat since 2007. He previously served on Durham City Council. Durham is a heavily blue area, so it’s likely another Democrat would replace him.
McKissick was nominated by Gov. Roy Cooper to the state Utilities Commission months ago, but his appointment has dragged out in the General Assembly.
Earlier this week, McKissick said he still plans to run for reelection.
“It’s the smart and reasonable thing to do,” he told The News & Observer. “I enjoy serving in the Senate. It’s a privilege to be here.”
As far as his Utilities Commission appointment, McKissick said “what’s meant to be will be. You work as good and as hard as you can.”
But it looks like he’ll get the appointment. It already went through the House, and passed a Senate committee on Thursday. The Senate is expected to vote on it next week.
McKissick’s Senate colleagues
McKissick is known for working across the aisle in the Senate and asking thorough questions.
“I think there is no better person to serve on the Utilities Commission than Sen. Floyd McKissick,” Sen. Gladys Robinson, a Greensboro Democrat, said during a committee meeting Thursday. “Floyd has expertise, and I’ll say this seriously, in just about every area.”
McKissick is known for spending 10 or more minutes asking questions about complicated bills. He told his Senate colleagues he’d bring that inquisitive nature to the Utilities Commission.
“You can depend upon that same level of thoroughness and attention to detail being the approach I will take at the Utilities Commission,” he said. “I think it’s one of the reasons the governor approached me about this.”
McKissick’s nomination passed in the House 114-3 in early July.
Democratic primary challengers
Also Thursday, a new challenger who has been active in the Democratic party announced her campaign for his seat.
Natalie Murdock, who was elected to a four-year term as a Durham County soil and water district supervisor in 2018, announced her campaign for the District 20 seat soon after the Senate committee moved forward McKissick’s appointment.
Murdock has her own consulting business and has held leadership positions in the Democratic party at the county level. She worked for GoTriangle on the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit project that was derailed earlier this year. She said part of the reason she wanted to run was to reimagine the Triangle’s transit future and how best to connect Durham with Chapel Hill and Raleigh.
She also thinks that as “a young woman of color and as a millennial,” she would be part of more voices at the table in the General Assembly. Murdock is 35. She said North Carolina needs more women in government concerned about reproductive rights and equal pay for equal work, and who have firsthand knowledge of being on the receiving end of those issues.
Murdock’s not the only Democrat interested in McKissick’s seat.
Pierce Freelon announced in August that he is running and will officially launch his campaign on Nov. 13. Freelon is a hip-hop artist and artistic director of North Star Church of the Arts in Durham, where he grew up. He previously ran unsuccessfully for Durham mayor and was among the finalists for an appointed Durham City Council seat in 2018.
Freelon is also in his mid-30s, and his campaign calls for high millennial turnout in 2020. He also wants Durham, known previously as the “City of Medicine,” to lead the charge for Medicaid expansion. The Durham delegation is all Democrats, and the caucus supports Medicaid expansion.
McKissick said this week it would have “been wise” for Freelon to wait until the seat was vacant to announce a run.
Candidate filing starts Dec. 2 for General Assembly seats up for election in 2020. If McKissick takes the Utilities Commission appointment and resigns from his Senate seat before his term ends, the Democratic party in his district will choose someone to appoint. That appointment would need approval from the governor.
Senate budget veto vote
Democrats need McKissick’s vote in the Senate to sustain the governor’s veto of the budget. McKissick voted for the budget in June, but said this week he will support Cooper and was not planning to vote for the override.
Senate leader Phil Berger has told reporters that the Senate will adjourn by Oct. 31, which is now just a week away. He said he will follow Senate rules that call for giving the minority party leader — Sen. Dan Blue — 24 hours’ notice before the override vote is taken.
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