An Entry in the Senate Race

Under the Dome reports that Kenneth Lewis of Durham is entering the race to challenge Richard Burr next year.

I've never heard of him, but he sounds like a successful person. Nonetheless I always find it curious when folks decide to begin their elected careers by seeking something like a Senate seat- it rarely works out unless you're well known from a previous walk of life or have the ability to do some significant self funding.

Even if Roy Cooper doesn't end up running I have to think the DSCC will still seek out a more well established candidate than Lewis. Nonetheless the primary electorate tends to be about 28-32% African American here so if he could really get the black community behind him that would give him a chance.

Since we now have a real live candidate we'll test him against Richard Burr this weekend, as well as someone else just for fun that you'll have to wait and see. I imagine Lewis' numbers, as someone who likely has pretty much no name recognition, will be pretty similar to what we found for Jim Neal and Cal Cunningham when we tested them in February.