Former state senator running to represent Wake and Johnston counties in Congress
As candidate filing wrapped up Friday in North Carolina for the 2022 election, a new name emerged to run for Congress in the Triangle.
Former state Sen. Sam Searcy announced he would add his name to the list of candidates in a swing district.
“Too many politicians in Washington are out of touch with the challenges that North Carolina families face, and they need someone who has gone through those same struggles, solved problems and will put their needs first,” Searcy told The News & Observer.
The newly drawn 13th Congressional District’s voters don’t lean overwhelmingly Republican or Democrat. It encompasses portions of four counties in and around the Triangle including southern Wake, and the two state Senate districts Searcy won in 2018 and 2020.
“I think that this presents a very unique opportunity to not only serve people that I have already represented, but more broadly serve some of the people of Harnett, Johnston and Wayne counties, as well,” Searcy said.
Running for Congress
Searcy spoke to The N&O about his campaign for the Democratic nomination late Thursday afternoon. At the time, eight others had filed in both primaries.
Searcy will face off against state Sen. Wiley Nickel, U.S. Air Force veteran Nathan Click and educator Denton Lee for the nomination in the May 17 primary.
But Searcy said his background sets him apart from his opponents.
“Families here deserve a representative who knows what a reliable local job, quality education and just a little bit more financial security can mean for a family, and who will fight for them every single day,” Searcy said. “I will be that voice for North Carolina.”
Searcy grew up on a tobacco and dairy farm in Hendersonville. His mom worked as a teacher’s assistant and his dad worked in a factory until his job was outsourced overseas.
His family struggled and eventually they lost their home. Searcy began working at 14, finished high school and then put himself through college at Appalachian State University and law school at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. He took out student loans and worked on campus to make ends meet.
After graduating, he worked in the Triangle but when the Great Recession hit in 2008, he too, was laid off. To care for his family, he took a job in the garden center at Lowe’s.
Eventually, he helped start his own local companies and now employs more than 80 people.
“What I want to do, I truly believe at my core, I want people that grew up like me, and all across this district, to have the same opportunities that I have had to become successful, whatever form that takes,” Searcy said. “And that’s why I’m going to run for Congress.”
Searcy started Graybeard Distillery and CliniStart, a company that helps with contracts in clinical research.
Political career
In 2016, North Carolina legislators passed a law, known as House Bill 2, that required transgender individuals to use the bathroom of the gender they were assigned at birth instead of the bathroom of the gender they identified with.
The fallout from the legislation was extreme, with industries across the nation refusing to do business in North Carolina.
“It was really devastating to the business community and I thought, you know, North Carolina is better than this,” Searcy said. “This is not who we are.”
That inspired Searcy to run for office.
He became a state senator in 2018 and won reelection in 2020. But soon after, Searcy left public office. Gov. Roy Cooper asked Searcy to work on the State Board of Community Colleges.
“I have really loved that,” Searcy said. “It’s such a powerful economic development engine for the state of North Carolina and we really help a lot of first generation, and a lot of first generation American children, get access to either a junior degree or move on to a four-year degree in the UNC system, so it’s been very rewarding.”
Searcy, who attended public schools, hopes if he gets to Congress he can find ways to make college affordable and fund universal pre-K.
Searcy lives with his wife Shauna and their four children, ages 4 through 12, in Holly Springs. They also have a goat farm in Avery County.
They told their children about his plans to run for Congress and what it would mean for them.
“It kind of choked me up a little bit, you know, how much support I have from them,” Searcy said. “It just means the world to me that they’re like, ‘Daddy, you have to do this’ and were very supportive.”
So supportive, in fact, that his kids asked if they could watch him file the paperwork to get his name on the ballot.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 7:00 AM.