Married couple Dave Carter and Mary Lopez-Carter shares Republican political passion

Dave Carter and Mary Lopez-Carter hike, scuba dive, travel and raise three sons together — and now they’re running for political office together.

“We do almost everything together, the two of us,” Carter said. “She’s my best friend.”

He and his wife are candidates in Orange County for the N.C. House and Senate respectively, but this is not their first race.

Carter lost in 2012 against former Sen. Ellie Kinnaird.

“It was frustrating. I worked my tail off,” he said.

But the race was a learning curve for him and Lopez-Carter, who ran for county commissioner that same year.

“Now we know what’s coming at us, but back then we spent a lot of time educating ourselves about the process,” she said.

Carter said he was asked numerous times after the election if he would run again, but he was skeptical.

He said people began approaching his wife when he declined.

She eventually decided to run for the same seat her husband lost — but this time, it’s against Sen. Valerie Foushee , D-Orange.

Lopez-Carter later convinced her husband to run again, now against Rep. Verla Insko , D-Orange.

Carter said the two are addicted to politics and grassroots activism.

“We work really hard to help everyone we know,” he said.

The couple, who live in Hillsborough, met through an online dating site in 2006 after both of their first marriages didn’t work out.

Carter said they blended their families, with his now-13 and 14-year-old sons and her 18-year-old son.

“The campaign is always secondary to what we have at home,” he said.

Lopez-Carter was living in Texas at the time, and Carter was living in North Carolina.

The two moved to Orange County in 2008 after they married, in part because a lot of Carter’s business is here.

He said he writes mobile smart phone applications, creates websites and serves as a tech consultant.

Lopez-Carter said she is a real estate broker for several online businesses and has been a business owner for 20 years.

She said she’d use her business background to make the state more fiscally conservative.

“I hate seeing it where people think if you just throw more money at something, it will fix the problem,” she said.

Carter said the two have similar ideals and platforms, which focus on job creation and education.

“We’ve seen the curriculum for (the Common Core),” Lopez-Carter said. “It’s not preparing our children for their futures at all.”

When the couple does differ in their political beliefs, they discuss the issues and typically come to an agreement.

For example, Carter had a black-and-white view against allowing same-sex marriage.

But Lopez-Carter explained the issue in terms of religion versus state. In the eyes of a state, marriage is a contract and shouldn’t be influenced by religious views, she said.

“Let them be married and be miserable like the rest of us,” Lopez-Carter said, laughing. “I just don’t want them meddling with what the Church established a long time ago.”

Carter said her views influenced his position.

Lopez-Carter, who is fluent in Spanish and has family in Peru, said she is reaching out to local Hispanic communities, which are under-represented in state and local government.

“There is no voice for them,” Carter said.

Neither face a primary challenge. While they both said they’re not worried about facing incumbents in November, it’s more about just getting their message out.

Insko said she takes competition seriously and looks forward to talking to Carter.

The Carters said they have learned a lot throughout the campaign — about politics and about each other.

“We’re each other’s biggest fans,” Carter said.

state@dailytarheel.com