In the 2008 general election, Bev Perdue defeated Republican challenger Pat McCrory to win the governor's seat held by the term-limited Easley. Perdue took 50 percent of the vote to McCrory's 47 percent.

Perdue cruised to victory during the North Carolina primary races over State Treasurer Richard Moore after a $16 million fight.

Perdue was elected North Carolina's first female lieutenant governor in 2000, defeating Republican Betsy Cochrane. She was re-elected in 2004, beating GOP candidate Jim Snyder.

(Last updated by Gary Robertson on March 27, 2009.)

Richard Burr won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2004, beating former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles with 52 percent of the vote. He faces re-election for the first time in 2010.

Burr made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House in 1992. He was elected to the U.S. House in 1994, defeating Democrat Sandy Sands III with 57 percent of the vote.

He won re-election to four subsequent terms, never falling below 62 percent of the vote.

(Last updated by Mike Baker on March 26, 2009.)

Kay Hagan defeated incumbent GOP Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008 with 53 percent of the vote to Dole's 44 percent in one of the nation's most-watched races, as Democrats approached a supermajority in the Senate. Political campaigns, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, spent more than $10 million on negative ads targeting Dole.

Hagan beat Chapel Hill entrepreneur Jim Neal during the North Carolina primary races for the right to run against Dole.

It was Hagan's first run for Congress. She announced her candidacy in October 2007, three weeks after saying she wouldn't challenge incumbent Dole.

Hagan was first elected to the state Senate in 1998.

(Last updated by Mike Baker on March 26, 2009.)