As the representative of North Carolina's 5th Congressional District which includes Winston-Salem, Kernersville, Wilkesboro and the rural Appalachian region of Boone, Richard Burr arrived with the Republican revolution in 1994 and has remained dedicated to many of its conservative principles.

Within his district are industries that have helped move North Carolina from a once booming textile and tobacco state to a hub of pharmaceutical, banking and high-skill factories. According to the Almanac of American Politics, Winston-Salem is home to the country's most advanced tire recycling plant and, up until the recent merger of banking goliaths First Union and Wachovia, the city had been home to Wachovia's headquarters since it's opening in 1879.

Burr was raised in Winston-Salem where he became a star player of the local high school's football team. In his 1994 election Burr largely ran on his support of Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America," a series of conservative laws introduced by Republicans in the mid 1990s, in his bid to defeat Democratic state Sen. Alexander "Sandy" Sands.

"Richard Burr has been a pretty conservative congressman," said Ferrell Guillory, director of the Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "He came in with the Gingrich crowd in 1994 but his posture has been more of a businessman's Republican. He's been a loyal member of the Republican majority in the house."

Burr's 1994 campaign was his second bid for Congress -- in 1992 he ran against Democrat Steve Neal and lost by a 7-point margin.

Since entering politics, Burr's voting record has remained largely conservative while making sure to protect local interests. He opposed tobacco legislation aimed at raising the price of cigarettes and opposed then-President Clinton's 1999 call for the Justice Department to sue tobacco industries in order to recoup smoking related health care costs.

He has supported President Bush's trade policies but has advocated for North Carolina to remain competitive in the international market.

Burr has also has spent much of his nine years in Congress focusing on health care and drug issues. He has made improvement of the federal Food and Drug Administration one of his main priorities. According to the National Journal, Burr also played a key role in helping shape the Republicans' prescription drug plan and has fought for the lowering of drug prices for seniors.

Burr currently is co-chairman for the Partnership for a Drug Free North Carolina, and has served on the House Select Committee on Intelligence and the Task Force on Terrorism.

Burr was the White House's top pick for Democratic Sen. John Edwards' open North Carolina Senate seat, and the Republican Party has poured funds into his campaign. Additionally, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has promised $5 million to fund a late onslaught of television campaign ads aimed at increasing Burr's name recognition among voters.

"The Burr candidacy is particularly tied to the White House; he's their candidate," said Guillory. "And it's not just the White House backing a Republican, they're really backing him. Everybody understood, 'get out of the way, this is the candidate.' Other Republicans knew not to challenge him."

Burr's current campaign for the Senate -- his first statewide race -- has been spent fighting to establish himself as a strong opponent of millionaire businessman and former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles. He has run a campaign throughout North Carolina with the aim of ensuring Republican voter turnout and imprinting his name in the minds of the voters.

On the issues Burr has said he supports granting federal agencies more authority in order to improve homeland security. He is in favor of the president's No Child Left Behind education legislation and has said he will work to make President Bush's tax cuts permanent.

Burr has aligned himself closely with the Bush campaign and the race for the White House, attending the Republican National Convention in early September and criticizing his opponent for not attending the Democratic convention.
"The willingness to stand with your candidate is an endorsement of the agenda of the candidate," Burr told the Charlotte Observer during the convention. "I'm not sure if the reluctance (by Democrats) is a fear that (Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.) will implode or a difference with the agenda he is espousing."

September polls showed Burr trailing Bowles by about 9 percentage points but that margin is expected to narrow as Election Day approaches.

"It's tight," said Guillory. "The polls just haven't shown it yet. What the polls do indicate is this bounce that Bowles has gotten from running two back to back campaigns and running them well."

But he added, "no Republican candidate has had less than 45 percent in a generation," a fact that could bode well for Burr on Nov. 2.