Mike Nelson (North Carolina)

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Michael R. "Mike" Nelson is an American politician from North Carolina who currently serves on the Orange County Board of Commissioners.

A Democrat, Nelson is a former mayor of Carrboro, North Carolina and the first openly gay person to be elected as a mayor of a North Carolina city.[1] Nelson was elected in 1995 after serving two years on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. He served five consecutive terms as mayor from 1995 to 2005. He has since moved to Hillsborough, North Carolina.

In November 2006, Nelson was elected to the Orange County Board of Commissioners. In 2007, he announced his intention to run for the North Carolina Senate in 2008, seeking to replace retiring Sen. Ellie Kinnaird in the reliably-Democratic 23rd district, which contains Orange and Person counties. When Kinnaird changed her mind and decided to run for re-election, Nelson suspended his own campaign.

Nelson works as Director of Governmental Relations for the Conservation Council of North Carolina, an environmental advocacy group.[citation needed] In May 2008, he began appearing in television commercials in which he said that as an "environmental scientist," he supported moving freight by train over truck travel.[2] Nelson has a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[2]

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  1. ^ “Got Pride? Exhibit On Openly Gay Elected Officials Makes Stop In D.C. For Gay Pride Celebration”, CommonDreams, May 15, 2002, <http://www.commondreams.org/news2002/0515-15.htm>. Retrieved on 2007-11-01 
  2. ^ a b “Nelson: Trains better for the planet”, 'Raleigh News and Observer OrangeChat blog, May 13, 2008, <http://blogs.newsobserver.com/orangechat/index.php?title=title_369&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1>. Retrieved on 2008-05-17 

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