I am trying to get full credit before November for my vote totals in my one statewide political campaign — the 1978 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina — so as to add credibility to my forthcoming freelance editorial endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President.
Ironically, though a number of national Democratic politicos suspected in the first half of 1978 that Sen. Ted Kennedy was considering entering the 1980 Democratic presidential campaign, I for one had no idea of this possibility and may well have not entered the 1978 senatorial campaign in North Carolina had I thought that there might well indeed have been a Carter-Kennedy primary for President in 1980, as I was a fan of both Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter at the time.
I will not be re-entering politics even if a more favorable vote total for me is subsequently revealed, but will continue in my present pursuits in writing and music. (I walked the state from Manteo to Murphy from April to October 1977, with weekend breaks for campaign events visited by car, followed by returns to the campaign hiking trail to beginning the following week of street-side campaigning.)
I hope to be done with all of this re-examination of the 1978 Democratic senatorial campaign by May 2018. Forty years should be enough for such enterprises!
David McKnight
Durham
