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The Man Who Would Be Senator
Is out North Carolina Democrat Jim Neal too much of a long shot to unseat incumbent Elizabeth Dole? Andrew Noyes finds out.
From The Advocate  January 29, 2008
The Man Who Would Be Senator

Jim Neal’s entry in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia is stunningly short. In a nutshell, the North Carolina investment banker is a 51-year-old divorced Democrat who is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Elizabeth Dole. Oh, and “in October of 2007, Neal publicly revealed that he is gay in an online discussion.”

Though Neal doesn’t believe his sexuality will work against him in the campaign, it remains to be seen whether his party -- and registered voters -- feel the same.

I catch up with Neal on a Sunday night in December after a full day of hand-shaking and speech-making. It’s getting late and he’s forgotten to eat dinner, but his enthusiasm is palpable, and the Greensboro, N.C., native is refreshingly frank. The novice politician, who opened a financial advisory firm in Chapel Hill after many years in New York, knows he has to become a household name. A top fund-raiser for retired Army general Wesley Clark’s and Sen. John Kerry’s failed presidential bids, Neal balked at conventional wisdom when he threw his hat in the ring to take on Dole. Could an openly gay man in the American South have a snowball’s chance of beating the former chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee?

“They think a gay guy can’t win in North Carolina,” says Neal. “That’s the same argument that a woman can’t hold elected office or a black person. It’s been proven wrong, damned wrong, in the past.”

A November poll conducted by a conservative think tank disagrees. Of those polled, 47% said they were less likely to vote for a gay candidate, versus only 7% who said it made them more likely to do so, while 37% said it made “no difference” at all.

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