Richard Burr

Richard Burr (born November 30, 1955, Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.) is an American politician who was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2004 and represented North Carolina from 2005 to 2023. He previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1995–2005).

While still a child, Burr—who was an indirect relative of Aaron Burr, the third U.S. vice president—moved with his family to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where his father served as a Presbyterian minister. In 1978 the younger Burr received a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University. He subsequently worked for some 17 years for a wholesale lawn and garden equipment distributor, eventually becoming a sales manager. During that time, Burr married Brooke Fauth, and the couple later had two children.

Burr entered politics in 1992, when he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives. He was unsuccessful, but he entered the 1994 race and won. He took office the following year and was reelected four times, capturing more than 62 percent of the vote each time. In 2004, when John Edwards left the Senate to pursue a presidential campaign, Burr ran for and won his seat. He entered the Senate in 2005.

While in Congress, Burr established a reputation as a moderate-to-conservative Republican. He served as chief deputy whip (2009–11) but failed in bids to secure other party leadership positions. Burr, along with most other Republicans, was a signatory of a widely circulated pledge not to increase taxes, and he supported a balanced-budget amendment. However, he broke with his party in 2010 when he voted to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which prohibited gay men and women from openly serving in the U.S. military. Burr was a strong opponent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010), and he also introduced bills related to cybersecurity and veterans affairs, two areas in which he had a longtime interest.

In 2015 Burr became chair of the Senate’s intelligence committee, and in that post he oversaw an investigation into allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election, which was won by Republican Donald Trump. The report, issued in April 2020, supported the intelligence community’s assessment that the foreign country had interfered. The following month, Burr temporarily stepped down as committee chair amid an FBI probe into allegations that he had committed insider trading when he sold stocks in February shortly before the market plunged because of the COVID-19 pandemic. No charges were ever filed. In 2021 Burr voted to convict Trump on an impeachment charge for his actions concerning the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The incident occurred when Trump supporters stormed the building, delaying Congress’ certification of Joe Biden as winner of the 2020 presidential election; Trump had refused to concede, alleging widespread voter fraud despite a lack of evidence. The Senate acquitted Trump, and the North Carolina Republican Party later censured Burr for his vote.

After his reelection in 2016, Burr had announced that he would not seek another term. In 2023 he left office.