(The Center Square) – A North Carolina lawmaker once shifted from a regular office to a former supply closet because he challenged the speaker of the House has resigned his seat in the state Senate.
Sen. Terence Everitt, D-Wake, will step away effective Friday. He plans to focus on voting rights advocacy. In January, he began work at the North Carolina Voter Protection Alliance.
On Election Night in November 2024, Everitt trailed Republican Ashlee Adams of Wake Forest by 38 votes of 121,988 cast. When the race was certified, provisionals and all absentee ballots coming in later having been counted, Everitt prevailed by 128 votes of 119,206 cast in Senate District 18.
The remainder of Everitt’s term will be filled by a successor chosen by the Democratic Party for Wake and Granville counties.
Everitt ran for the post as a favor to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper; he had planned to retire from the state House of Representatives ending a term from 2018-24.
When Everitt served in the House of Representatives in 2023, now-U.S. Rep. Tim Moore was speaker. Everitt asked for an investigation of Moore by the county district attorney, accusing him of an affair with a state employee.
Janitors cleaned a supply room closet in the basement and moved things from his former office to the new location. His legislative assistant remained on a different floor of the building.
As for Moore, a settlement was reached in litigation involving the woman’s estranged husband. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman declined a criminal investigation of Moore.
