Democrat · North Carolina's 4th District · 2026
Valerie Foushee
Foushee worked long shifts at the Chapel Hill Police Department and still found time to volunteer in her sons' classrooms.
Biography
Valerie Foushee worked twelve hour shifts as an administrative officer in the Chapel Hill Police Department while volunteering in her children's classrooms.1 She married her high school sweetheart, Stanley, and they have two sons.1 Raised in Chapel Hill, she began her education in segregated schools and first attended an integrated school in sixth grade.1
Her college education took a longer route: she left UNC Chapel Hill after two years because she could not afford to continue, then returned to finish.1 In 2008, the same year she retired after 21 years with the police department, she completed her degree in political science and African American studies.1
Foushee served on the Chapel Hill Carrboro school board from 1997 to 2004, then became an Orange County commissioner and its first Black female chair.1 She subsequently served in the state House and Senate before winning her congressional race in 2022.1 Her current assignments include Science, Space and Technology and Transportation and Infrastructure, with subcommittee work covering energy, aviation and railroads.2
She supports Medicare for All, extending Affordable Care Act subsidies and making the Child Tax Credit fully refundable.3 She also favors federal protections for abortion rights and contraceptive access, and limits on institutional investors buying family homes.3 She faces Republican Max Ganorkar.4