PUBLISHED:November 07, 2018

Election returns: Duke Law alumni heading to Congress, legislatures, and other offices

In January, Mike Levin ’05 will join the 116th United States Congress representing California’s 49th district and Susan Bysiewicz ’86 will begin a four-year term as Connecticut’s lieutenant governor. The two are among several members of the Duke Law community who won election or re-election on Nov. 6. All listed below are Democrats.

Levin, a first-time candidate, lives in San Juan Capistrano. A native of South Orange County and graduate of Stanford University, where he was student body president, he served as executive director of the Democratic Party of Orange County after his Duke Law graduation. He has spent most of his career as an attorney focused on environmental and energy regulatory compliance and government affairs and made his commitment to clean energy central to his platform. Read more.

Bysiewicz, a member of the Duke Law Board of Visitors and resident of Middletown, served as a state representative before being elected as Connecticut’s secretary of state in 1999. She held that office, which entailed serving as both chief business registrar and chief elections official, until 2011, when she joined Pastore & Dailey in Glastonbury, as a partner, with a practice focused on corporate law and finance, banking, commercial transactions, and election law. Read more.

Dan Blue, Jr. ’73, Floyd McKissick, Jr. ’84, Natasha Marcus ’94, and Darren Jackson ’97 will serve together in the North Carolina General Assembly. Blue has represented the state's 14th Senate district since his appointment in 2009 and earlier served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1981 through 2002 and from 2006 until he received his Senate appointment. In the House he served as speaker and chaired the Judiciary Appropriations Committee. The founding partner of Blue, Stephens & Fellers in Raleigh, Blue is past president National Conference of State Legislatures and a former chair of the Duke University Board of Trustees. He is an honorary life member of the Duke Law Board of Visitors. Read more.

McKissick has represented North Carolina’s 20th district since 2007 and currently serves as the senior deputy Democratic leader in Senate. He served as chairman of the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus from 2010 to 2012, chairman of the Durham County Democratic Party from 2005 to 2007, and as a member of the Durham City Council from 1993 to 2001. McKissick, a former member of the Durham Board of Adjustment and the Durham Planning Commission, is a principal at McKissick & McKissick in Durham, where his current areas of practice include business law, criminal defense law, administrative law, and family law. Read more.           

Jackson has been reelected to the N.C. House of Representatives, where he has served since 2009 representing the 39th district. He was elected House minority leader in 2017. He is a partner at Gay, Jackson & McNally in Zebulon, where he maintains a general practice with an emphasis on personal injury, wrongful death, worker’s compensation, civil litigation, and residential real estate. Read more.

Marcus will represent North Carolina’s 41st district in the state Senate; the 41st is a newly drawn district in Mecklenburg County. Marcus, who received a BA in public policy from Hamilton College before attending Duke Law, practiced law at Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard and clerked for Judge Frank W. Bullock, Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Greensboro.  A resident of Davidson, she is a longtime community organizer and activist. Read more.

Satana Deberry ’94 has been elected district attorney of Durham County. She was unopposed on the November ballot after defeating the incumbent in the primary election last May, running on a platform for progressive change in the administration of criminal justice in Durham. Deberry previously was executive director of the N.C. Housing Coalition and earlier practiced criminal defense law and worked with Self-Help in Durham. Read more.

Matt Calabria ’09 has won a second term on the Wake County (N.C.) Board of Commissioners, where he represents district 2 in the southern part of the county. He chairs the commission’s Public Safety Committee. Calabria practices law at Wallace & Nordan in Raleigh. Read more.