By Staff
Washington resident faces task of winning Republican nomination
By CLAUD HODGES
Senior Reporter
Washington resident Greg Dority wants to be lieutenant governor of North Carolina.
That’s why he plans to file in February to run in the Republican primary in May. If he wins the Republican nomination, he would face the Democratic nominee.
Dority is scheduled to be the guest speaker at the Beaufort County Republican Men’s Club meeting Thursday. The club’s dinner begins at 6 p.m. at Hog Heaven restaurant. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.
In the past, Dority has run for the state’s First Congressional District seat. He lost to Frank Ballance in 2002, and he lost to Rep. G.K. Butterfield in 2004.
On Monday, Dority said he “sat out in 2006” but is “back in politics” now. Since the end of September, Dority said, he has visited 25 of the state’s 100 and talked to people about “the middle class being squeezed to the point where they can’t make it.”
Because of this, Dority said, Republicans must understand that their party must cross party and racial lines to win in North Carolina.
Dority said he is “a fiscal conservative” and wants “to lower taxes on the working folks and on the small businesses.”
There are “fiscal issues out there” that affect “your pocketbook,” Dority said. Dority said he wants to face those issues and solve them.
He said response around the state to his platform “has been great.”
During the past two months, according to Dority, the more he has worked, the more he has learned.
Whether it is five people, 10 people, 25 people or 50 people, he has come away encouraged that his stance is being “well received,” Dority said.
The candidate said education is a key part of his campaign. Dority said that American children must learn other languages in addition to English so they can live in the global age.
In addition, he said regulation of unfair business practices is a big part of his campaign. For example, according to Dority, he would “push to see” insurance credit-scoring banned in the state. He said this causes “disproportionate effects” for minorities by jeopardizing their personal insurance costs burden.
Republicans must take actions like this to gain the confidence of voters so they may cross barriers they have “so often encountered” in North Carolina, Dority said.
Apparently, Robert Pittenger will challenge Dority for the Republican nomination. Pittenger has said he is seeking that nomination.
Dority was born in 1958 in Goldsboro to Tom and Joyce Dority. His father worked for the U.S. Treasury Department, and his mother worked at a bank.
Dority graduated from Washington High School in 1976. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from N.C. State University in 1981.
He is a managing partner at Sterling Security in Washington.