Cherie Berry
Cherie Berry | |
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| |
Labor Commissioner of North Carolina | |
Assumed office January 6, 2001 | |
Governor |
Mike Easley Bev Perdue Pat McCrory Roy Cooper |
Preceded by | Harry Payne |
Personal details | |
Born |
Newton, North Carolina, U.S. | December 21, 1946
Political party | Republican |
Education |
Lenoir-Rhyne University (BA) Gaston College Oakland Community College |
Cherie Killian Berry (born December 21, 1946) is the current North Carolina Commissioner of Labor, a member of the North Carolina Council of State and head of the North Carolina Department of Labor.[1]
Berry was born in Newton, North Carolina and owned LGM Ltd., a spark plug wire manufacturing business in Catawba County, North Carolina.[2] A businesswoman, Berry served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1993 to 2000, where she chaired the welfare reform committee and co-chaired the commerce committee.[3] In November 2000, she was elected state labor commissioner, the first woman to hold the post.[1] A Republican, (the only Republican on the Council of State between 2001 and 2005), she bested Democrat Wayne Goodwin to win a second term in the 2004 statewide elections.[1] Berry narrowly defeated Mary Fant Donnan to keep her seat in the 2008 election. Berry won a fourth four-year term in November 2012, defeating former Labor Commissioner John C. Brooks by more than 280,000 votes.[4] Berry won a fifth four-year term in November 2016 , defeating former Raleigh mayor Charles Meeker by more than 476,000 votes, her largest percentage margin of victory.[5]
Berry was criticized in a newspaper report on poultry plant oversight.[6] Berry's fundraising has also been called into question by the Charlotte Observer.[7]
Biography
Cherie Killian was born in Newton, North Carolina, United States on December 21, 1946, to Earl and Lena Carrigan Killian.[8] Her father named her Cherie after the French phrase "mon chérie" (English: my darling) which he had heard in France on his way home following his release as a prisoner-of-war of World War II.[9] Kilian graduated from Maiden High School in 1965[8] and moved to Boone where she worked wrapping Christmas presents at a department store and delivering newspapers.[10] She attended Lenoir Rhyne College, ending her studies there in 1967. She also studied at Gaston College in 1969 and Oakland Community College in 1977.[8] She married Norman H. Berry Jr. and took his last name, becoming Cherie Berry.[10]
In 1985 Berry and her husband founded LGM Ltd., a company based in a former billiard hall that manufactured spark-plug wires for cars. After initial financial uncertainty, the venture became very profitable.[10] Norman H. Berry Jr. died in 2006.[11]
Popular culture
Berry has received a small following among younger North Carolinians due to her catchy name (when mispronounced as CHAIR-ree Berry, like the fruit) and her picture inside elevators in North Carolina. Her picture and signature appear inside all elevators in North Carolina on the Certification of Operation leading to her receiving the unofficial title of "The Elevator Queen". A paper published in a political science journal attributes her success above that of other Republican politicians to the presence of her name and picture in elevators across the state. [12]
The bands Alternative Champs and Tha Commissioners wrote the songs Cherie Berry and Cherry Berry, respectively, about Berry.[13]
Electoral history
North Carolina House of Representatives 45th District Election, 1996 | |||
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Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Joe Kiser (inc.) | 29,173 | 50.64 |
Republican | Cherie Killian Berry (inc.) | 28,436 | 49.36 |
North Carolina House of Representatives 45th District Election, 1998 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Joe Kiser (inc.) | 20,275 | 39.02 |
Republican | Cherie Killian Berry (inc.) | 20,122 | 38.72 |
Democratic | Columbus Turner | 11,567 | 22.26 |
North Carolina Commissioner of Labor Republican Primary Election, 2000 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Cherie Killian Berry | 92,695 | 38.39 |
Republican | John Miller | 74,127 | 30.70 |
Republican | Mac Wetherman | 49,468 | 20.49 |
Republican | Carl Southard | 25,135 | 10.41 |
North Carolina Commissioner of Labor Election, 2000 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Cherie Killian Berry | 1,379,417 | 50.13 |
Democratic | Doug Berger | 1,372,165 | 49.87 |
North Carolina Commissioner of Labor Republican Primary Election, 2004 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Cherie Berry (inc.) | 194,723 | 64.57 |
Republican | Lloyd Funderburk | 106,841 | 35.43 |
North Carolina Commissioner of Labor Election, 2004 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Cherie Berry (inc.) | 1,723,004 | 52.09 |
Democratic | Wayne Goodwin | 1,584,488 | 47.91 |
North Carolina Commissioner of Labor Election, 2008 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Cherie Berry (inc.) | 2,065,095 | 50.61 |
Democratic | Mary Fant Donnan | 2,015,442 | 49.39 |
North Carolina Commissioner of Labor Election, 2012 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Cherie Berry (inc.) | 2,300,500 | 53.26 |
Democratic | John Brooks | 2,019,266 | 46.74 |
North Carolina Commissioner of Labor Election, 2016 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Cherie Berry (inc.) | 2,487,829 | 55.21 |
Democratic | Charles Meeker | 2,013,300 | 44.68 |
none | Write-ins (total) | 5,006 | 0.11 |
Citations
- 1 2 3 "Commissioner's Office". NCDOL. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
- ↑ http://www.nclabor.com/commish.htm
- ↑ http://digital.ncdcr.gov/utils/getdownloaditem/collection/p16062coll9/id/169021/filename/178491.pdf/mapsto/pdf
- ↑ http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/42923/114645/Web01/en/summary.html
- ↑ http://er.ncsbe.gov/?election_dt=11/08/2016&county_id=0&office=COS&contest=0
- ↑ Alexander, Ames (9 March 2008). "BERRY PLANS NO CHANGES AFTER STORIES ON POULTRY". Charlotte Observer.
- ↑ Alexander, Ames; Ingram, David (5 October 2008). "For donors to Berry, breaks on fines are larger". Charlotte Observer. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
- 1 2 3 North Carolina Manual 2001, p. 277.
- ↑ Queram, Kate Elizabeth (September 10, 2017). "The improbable rise of the 'Elevator Queen'". Winston-Salem Journal. Greensboro. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
- 1 2 3 Warren-Hicks, Colin (September 5, 2017). "The woman in the elevator, Cherie Berry, is "a bit of an icon" for Millennials". The Herald-Sun. Raleigh. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
- ↑ "Norman H. Berry Jr. Obituary". The News & Observer. February 5, 2006. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
- ↑ http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1532673X15602755. Missing or empty
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(help) - ↑ McCorkle, Raven (January 25, 2018). "An Ode To Elevator Queen Cherie Berry". Old Gold & Black. Wake Forest University Media Board. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
References
- North Carolina Manual. Raleigh: State Department of Archives and History, North Carolina. 2001. OCLC 898149266.
External links
Political offices | ||
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Preceded by Harry Payne |
Labor Commissioner of North Carolina 2001–present |
Incumbent |