Former North Carolina US Sen. Lauch Faircloth dies at 95

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth of North Carolina has died. He was 95. The onetime conservative Democrat switched late in his career to the Republicans and then got elected to Congress. Former campaign aide and close friend Brad Crone said Faircloth died Thursday at his home in Clinton. Years after an unsuccessful Democratic bid for governor in 1984, Faircloth switched to the GOP and ran in 1992 against U.S. Sen. Terry Sanford, a longtime friend and former political ally. Faircloth pulled off the upset, attacking Sanford as a big-spending liberal and benefiting politically from Sanford’s health problems in the campaign’s final weeks. Faircloth lost the seat six years later to Democrat John Edwards.