As the dust from this year’s election settles, SEANC’s Employees Political Action Committee (EMPAC) scored a 73-percent success rate for its 81 endorsed bi-partisan candidates.

EMPAC is the member-led political arm of SEANC. Through an exhaustive process that began on the local level, it endorsed 81 bi-partisan candidates for election this year. Those candidates were chosen for endorsement because either they had a track record of standing up for state employees or because they promised to do so if elected.

EMPAC’s endorsements and the subsequent turnout of SEANC members to support those bi-partisan candidates who support them is the first step in the association’s efforts to lobby the General Assembly.

“SEANC made its voice heard this election season,” Statewide EMPAC Chairman Tony Smith said. “Lawmakers know if they value vital public services for the residents of North Carolina and the people who provide those, our members will support them. We look forward to working with all of the new and returning legislators next year on our members’ priorities, including pension transparency, employee due process rights and still much-needed pay raises for state employees and retirees.”

In the state Senate, 17 of 24 endorsed bi-partisan candidates won:

• District 3: Erica Smith-Ingram (D-Northampton)
• District 4: Angela Bryant (D-Nash)
• District 5: Don Davis (D-Greene)
• District 6: Harry Brown (R-Onslow)
• District 7: Louis Pate (R-Wayne)
• District 10: Brent Jackson (R-Sampson)
• District 13: Jane Smith (D-Robeson)
• District 14: Dan Blue (D-Wake)
• District 17: Tamara Barringer (R-Wake)
• District 22: Mike Woodard (D-Durham)
• District 23: Valerie Foushee (D-Orange)
• District 26: Phil Berger (R-Rockingham)
• District 30: Shirley Randleman (R-Wilkes)
• District 33: Stan Bingham (R-Davidson)
• District 39: Bob Rucho (R-Mecklenburg)
• District 48: Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson)
• District 49: Terry Van Duyn (D-Buncombe)

In the state House 42 of 57 endorsed bi-partisan candidates won:

• District 5: Howard Hunter III (D-Hertford)
• District 7: Bobbie Richardson (D-Franklin)
• District 12: George Graham (D-Lenoir)
• District 13: Pat McElraft (R-Carteret)
• District 14: George Cleveland (R-Onslow)
• District 15: Phillip Shepard (R-Onslow)
• District 22: William Brisson (D-Bladen)
• District 23: Shelly Willingham (D-Edgecombe)
• District 24: Jean Farmer-Butterfield (D-Wilson)
• District 26: Leo Daughtry (R-Johnston)
• District 27: Michael Wray (D-Northampton)
• District 28: J.H. Langdon (R-Harnett)
• District 30: Paul Luebke (D-Durham)
• District 31: Mickey Michaux (D-Durham)
• District 32: Nathan Baskerville (D-Vance)
• District 36: Nelson Dollar (R-Wake)
• District 38: Yvonne Lewis Holley (D-Wake)
• District 39: Darren Jackson (D-Wake)
• District 40: Marilyn Avila (R-Wake)
• District 43: Elmer Floyd (D-Cumberland)
• District 45: John Szoka (R-Cumberland)
• District 46: Ken Waddell (D-Columbus)
• District 48: Garland Pierce (D-Scotland)
• District 50: Graig Meyer (D-Orange)
• District 51: Brad Salmon (D-Harnett)
• District 56: Verla Insko (D-Orange)
• District 60: Cecil Brockman (D-Guilford)
• District 65: Bert Jones (R-Rockingham)
• District 67: Justin Burr (R-Stanly)
• District 70: Pat Hurley (R-Randolph)
• District 71: Evelyn Terry (D-Forsythe)
• District 75: Donny Lambeth (R-Forsythe)
• District 78: Allen McNeill (R-Randolph)
• District 83: Linda Johnson (R-Cabarrus)
• District 84: Rena Turner (R-Iredell)
• District 87: Edgar Starnes (R-Catawba)
• District 89: Mitch Setzer (R-Catawba)
• District 91: Bryan Holloway (R-Stokes)
• District 93: Jonathan Jordan (R-Ashe)
• District 108: John Torbett (R-Gaston)
• District 111: Tim Moore (R-Cleveland)
• District 116: Brian Turner (D-Buncombe)