Richard Mauze Burr is an American politician who has served as a United States Senator from North Carolina since 2005. A member of the Republican Party, Burr previously represented North Carolina's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2005. As Senator, Burr has had a non-controversial tenure so far, espousing most of the Republican Party's expected positions, from general support for President George W. Bush's actions in Iraq to abortion opposition. Strikingly, however, he voted to repeal the military's employment discrimination policy against... gays. As well, in October, he announced he seeks the post of minority whip, the number two Republican position in the Senate. Burr is the son of a minister. He has children with Brooke, his wife of 27 years. He is distant kin of former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr. Burr was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, the son of Martha and Rev. David Horace White Burr, a minister. He graduated from Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, N.C. in 1974 and earned a B.A. from Wake Forest University in 1978.
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