Richard M. Burr (born November 30, 1955) is an American politician and Senator from North Carolina; a Republican, he initially represented North Carolina's 5th Congressional district (map) in the United States House of Representatives, but was recently elected to represent North Carolina as a US Senator in the 2004 election. Burr was first elected to Congress in 1994 and was a businessman in Winston-Salem prior to his political career.

In July 2004, Burr won the Republican primary to seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by John Edwards. He faced Democrat Erskine Bowles and Libertarian Tom Bailey. The final month of the Senate campaign saw both Bowles' and Burr's campaigns turn strongly negative, with Burr's campaign attacking Bowles' associations with the Clinton administration, while Bowles' campaign attacked Burr on his support of unpopular trade legislation and donations from special interests.

Despite an early lead by Bowles in the polls that was most likely due to name recognition garnered in his 2002 senatorial run, Burr won the election by five percentage points. Bowles' and Burr's combined campaign expenditures totaled over 26 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive senate races in the country.

External links

• Official Senate site
• Campaign site

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John Edwards | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |U.S. Senator (Class 3) from North Carolina
2005- | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Incumbent