Lorene T. Coates

Who is Lorene T. Coates?

Lorene Thomason Coates served as a Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the U.S. state's seventy-seventh House district, including constituents in Rowan county from 2001-2011.

A retiree from Salisbury, North Carolina, she worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She has hosted a weekly radio show and for twenty years wrote a newspaper column in the Salisbury Post.

On March 30, 2006, she gained distinction by being the first Democratic member of the House to publicly call for House Speaker, and fellow Democrat, Jim Black to step down from his post as Speaker following investigations of his misconduct. Black later resigned from the House and pleaded guilty to a felony charge of public corruption.

In 2007 she announced her support for John Edwards for President.