Candidate Biography (submitted by candidate):

David Price's constituents in North Carolina's Research Triangle region know him for his focus on growing jobs and the economy, improving educational access and quality, and working on pragmatic solutions to the challenges we face as a nation.

As the only member of North Carolina's congressional delegation to serve on the Appropriations Committee, Price has championed federal investments in transportation infrastructure and groundbreaking medical and clean energy research, positioning the Triangle as a leader in the 21st Century economy and laying the foundation for economic recovery.

Price serves as chairman of the homeland security funding committee in the House. Through his position, he has worked to confront emerging threats and to emphasize disaster preparedness as a key component of Homeland Security. He is a strong advocate for law enforcement personnel and firefighters, investing in the tools they need to keep our communities safe. And he has initiated new efforts to secure our borders, combat violent drug cartels, and focus immigration enforcement on people involved in criminal activity.

Price supports transparency in government and has partnered with Republicans in the current Congress on efforts to limit the influence of special-interest money in elections and require corporations and labor unions to own up to their political ads. He also led efforts to reform deceptive credit card practices, giving consumers making payment decisions transparent information. These efforts build upon a record of working across the aisle on ethics reform, homeland security and deficit reduction.

Born in Erwin, Tennessee, Price graduated from Mars Hill College and UNC-Chapel Hill before earning his Ph.D. and divinity degree from Yale. He taught political science at Duke University before being elected to Congress. He lives in Chapel Hill with his wife Lisa. They have two grown children and two grandchildren.

The fundamental question before voters in this election is "will we continue to move forward, or will we go back to the failed policies of the past?"

In January of 2009, our national economy lost over 779,000 jobs in that month alone. Since the start of this year, our economy has created over 880,000 jobs -- a significant number -- but not nearly enough to replace what was lost in the deepest recession since the 1930s, caused in large part by the Bush Administration's failure to curb reckless behavior on Wall Street.

Our ability to fully recover from this deep recession depends on three strategies, each dependent on the other: continued investment in job-creating measures to spur economic growth, implementing tough new rules to protect consumers from Wall Street abuses, and a return to balanced budgets and reduced debt.  While Republicans in Congress have stood in the way of these reforms, I have been working to keep the recovery going.  Triangle families and small businesses deserve a representative for whom jobs and the economy are job # 1.

Triangle families can count on me to support public education with common-sense changes to the No Child Left Behind law and measures to recruit and retain qualified teachers.  They can count on my longstanding support of strict ethical standards for public officials, and for limiting the influence of special-interest money in elections.  And they can count on me, as Chairman of the Homeland Security funding committee, to ensure that our first responders and homeland security professionals have the resources and intelligence they need to keep our country safe.