Honoring my favorite Senator… 

September 23rd, 2023

From the Desk of Chuck Fuller, CEO The Results Company

Earlier this week, I shared some brief thoughts about my good friend U.S. Senator Duncan McLauchlin “Lauch” Faircloth, who passed way September 14^th.  I would like to share a more in-depth look at Sen. Faircloth’s legacy.

Faircloth had a fascinating dual career in business and politics. He succeeded first as a Democrat and then as a Republican. He was a Terry Sanford mentee and then later defeated him in a run for U.S. Senate. He went toe-to-toe with former Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, swatting aside broadsides from Barry with classic lines like, “My ability to run a city is exactly that of Mayor Barry’s: None at all.” Oh, and he narrowly survived a harrowing plane crash, with his seatmates crediting him for saving their lives.
 
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Faircloth was born in Sampson County in 1928. By age 22, he had ditched college to work on the family farm and started several other businesses.
 
Faircloth’s obituary states, “He did not understand why people wanted to take vacations or weekends because he was at his happiest making deals and checking on his various business operations, ideally with a chew of tobacco in his mouth.”
 
To Faircloth, business was both a means to earn a living and a way to live. It was his profession and his hobby. By the time he reached middle age, Faircloth owned the 2,500-acre family cotton farm, a hog farm, a construction business, and multiple car dealerships.
 
As my father used to say, some people know how to rub two nickels together and come out with a quarter. That was Senator Faircloth. Wise. Conservative. He could see around corners in business and the economy.
 
Besides business, Faircloth’s closest interest was politics. He is remembered insisting that politics “is a fine avocation but a poor vocation.”
 
Even so, Faircloth got involved early in his life, driving around the state with U.S. Senator Kerr Scott and then, in his early thirties, supporting Terry Sanford’s successful 1960 bid for governor.
 
After Sanford’s win, Faircloth served on various commissions, later becoming Secretary of Commerce from 1977-1985 under Governor Jim Hunt.
 
Having succeeded in business and more-than-dabbled in politics, Faircloth aspired to hold public office himself. In 1984, he ran in a crowded Democratic primary for governor. No candidate met the threshold for an outright win, so the top two finishers – Rufus Edmisten and H. Edward Knox – advanced to a runoff. Faircloth came in third.
 
It was during this campaign that Faircloth narrowly averted death. The News & Observer has the story:
 
“[Campaign aide Brad] Crone credits Faircloth for saving his life when the two men, along with a captain and a co-pilot, crashed into Lake James as they started a night flight from Marion in mountainous McDowell County to Raleigh. The plane caught fire in the crash. Faircloth forced open a wrecked hatch, and the men escaped. ‘In another 15-30 seconds, we would have choked on the smoke,’ Crone said. ‘I’ve been loyal to the man because he saved my life.’”
 
Perhaps the loss in that primary campaign was a blessing because Jim Martin went on to wallop Edmisten during Ronald Reagan’s near-sweep of the Electoral College.
 
Faircloth then looked at the open 1986 race for the U.S. Senate. He and his former ally, Terry Sanford, had a falling out when Sanford dismissed Faircloth’s viability for the seat and then announced his own candidacy. I am happy to recall when Faircloth and Sanford later repaired their friendship.
 
Four years later, however, in 1990, Faircloth began maneuvering to run against Sanford in the 1992 election for his seat. Faircloth switched parties and earned the warm embrace of U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. Faircloth defeated Sanford by more than four points.
 
In Washington, Faircloth earned the top seat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the District of Columbia. His tenure overlapped with Marion Barry’s fourth term as D.C. mayor – which Barry earned after a prison stint from an FBI sting operation that caught him smoking crack cocaine.
 
Faircloth and Barry did not get along.
 
D.C.’s books were an utter mess, and the city was heading towards bankruptcy. Faircloth, from his perch on the Senate Appropriations Committee, orchestrated a near-takeover of the city’s finances, with a control board wielding final authority over most of the mayor’s decisions.
 
“Barry, aggrieved and resentful,” the Washington Post reported, “unleashed much of his ire on Mr. Faircloth, who helped lead the process that created the control board.”
 
With little control over his city’s operations – largely because of his own incompetence – Barry fired broadsides at Faircloth. “When he got the opportunity to stick up the District and begin to rape democracy, he did so,” Barry said in 1997.
 
Despite Barry’s angry statements, Faircloth came out on top – a recurring theme throughout his life. Washington Post reporter Michael Powell wrote that in the end, “It was in-house guerrilla warfare, and Faircloth crushed it like a bug.”
 
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Faircloth found success in most everything he touched, whether in business or in politics, whether as a Republican or a Democrat. He was deeply respected for his business acumen, and for good reason. He was a business icon throughout all of North Carolina. People from all walks of life admired his success. 
 
I could go on for days recounting fond memories and stories of his accomplishments, but I’ll leave you with this. It brings tears to my eyes thinking of never seeing him again on this earth. Having sat with him in church services and received his kind concern for me, I look forward to a reunion where there will be no more sickness or pain for my friend.