NEWS
Davidson Resident Natasha Marcus Sworn in as State Senator
New N.C. Senator Natasha Marcus invited supporters to visit with her any time they’re in Raleigh. (Bill Giduz photo)
[view News of Davidson photo gallery from the event]
A standing-room-only crowd of supporters gathered in Davidson Town Hall Wednesday evening to cheer the recent electoral victory of Natasha Marcus and swear her in as a new N.C. state senator.
State Senator Jeff Jackson made opening remarks at Natasha Marcus’ swearing in ceremony.
The crowd filled the chamber and spilled out into the halls. N.C. State Senator Jeff Jackson fired up the crowd with enthusiastic remarks about the positive difference Marcus and other recently elected “blue wave” candidates will make in state governance. One of Marcus’s two daughters, Ellie, briefly introduced her mother, and Judge John Arrowood of the N.C. Court of Appeals administered the oath of office.
Marcus then spoke, outlining a list of concerns she plans to address during her two year term.
They included prioritizing public education, implementing affordable health care for all, addressing the 50-year I-77 toll road contract, putting an end to gerrymandering, holding corporate polluters accountable for contamination of natural resources, promoting responsible gun laws that put the safety of people above the agenda of the gun lobby, and other “policies that acknowledge the needs, the equality and humanity of all people.”
Judge John Arrowood swore in State Senator Natasha Marcus.
Marcus said, “Because of what you’ve accomplished, all of those things are possible in 2019.”
She said, “I know I am taking on an important obligation. It’s humbling to know that I’m one of only 50 people in the state who have the privilege of serving in the Senate, one of 21 members in my party who will be in Senate chamber, and one of only 10 women who will serve there.
She continued, “I understand the magnitude of this opportunity, and will hold true to our values. I’d also like to make a prediction – Now that we have better balance in our state government, I predict we’ll have less of this crazy hyper-partisanship there. We’re going to have an incentive to work together to find bipartisan ways to address the problems that all of us face, and all of us want to solve.”
New State Senator Natasha Marcus got a big hug from her daughter Ellie just after being sworn into office.
Marcus said she has a life-long interest in public policy and governance, and that motivated her to run for the district’s State House seat in 2014. She admitted her disappointment in that defeat, and thanked supporters who urged her to run again for the Senate seat.
She said she was especially buoyed by one couple who framed a quote from Theodore Roosevelt that she kept on her wall. It read, “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong person stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done it better. The credit belongs to the person who’s actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who spends oneself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst if she fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that her place will never be with those cold and timid souls who never know neither victory or defeat.”