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Freshman Rep. Foushee to fill Kinnaird's Senate seat

Freshman state Rep. Valerie Foushee will replace resigning Chapel Hill Democrat Ellie Kinnaird in the North Carolina Senate.

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State Rep. Valerie P. Foushee, D-District 50
RALEIGH, N.C. — Freshman state Rep. Valerie Foushee will succeed Chapel Hill Democrat Ellie Kinnaird in the North Carolina Senate.

A committee of Orange County and Chatham County Democrats selected Foushee, D-Orange, from a list of several contenders, including Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton, former state Rep. Alice Bordsen and well-known author and blogger Amy Tiemann.

Foushee will serve the remainder of Kinnaird's term, expiring December 2014. Because the district is considered one of the few "safe" Democratic districts drawn in the GOP's 2011 redistricting maps, she is considered likely to win election to a full term.

Foushee was the first black woman elected to the Orange County Board of Commissioners. She chaired that board, as well as the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education, before she won her first House term in 2012. She's been endorsed by fellow state House freshman Rep. Deb McManus, D-Chatham. 

She will be formally appointed to Kinnaird's open seat by Gov. Pat McCrory, but a date for the swearing in has not been set. 

Kinnaird, 81, announced her resignation last month, effective immediately, to work on outreach efforts to ensure people had the required photo identification to vote under a new state law. She was in her ninth term in the state Senate.

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