Ada Fisher

Ada M. Fisher (October 21, 1947 – October 7, 2022) was an American physician from Salisbury, North Carolina, and a frequent Republican candidate for office.

Born on October 21, 1947, Fisher was the daughter of Rev. Miles Mark Fisher of Durham, North Carolina, himself the son of a former slave and his Seminole Indian wife.

Rev. Fisher was also a Republican, as was her grandfather, who was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation when he was ten years old.

Fisher attended Durham public schools, graduating from Hillside High School with honors.

She then graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in biology.

Fisher went on to earn her medical degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master's in public health from Johns Hopkins University.

Fisher converted to Judaism.

Upon receiving her medical degree, Fisher participated in a residency at the University of Rochester in family medicine.

She later ran a rural North Carolina health clinic and a 16-county substance abuse program.

In addition, she worked for two Fortune 500 companies, including medical director for Amoco in Chicago.

Fisher said that she had put 73,000 miles on her car traveling the six counties of the 12th District for her campaign.

Before retiring in 2000 due to a leg disability, Fisher served as Chief of Occupational Health Services at the W.G. "Bill" Hefner Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salisbury.

In addition to being a physician, Fisher was licensed as a secondary teacher in mathematics and science.

Fisher was a former member of the board of education for the Rowan–Salisbury School System.

In addition, she had served on the boards of trustees of Barber-Scotia College (in Concord) and Preservation NC.

Fisher ran for the United States Senate in 2002 in the Republican primary against Elizabeth Dole, who went on to win the general election; Fisher placed fourth in a field of seven Republican candidates.

Fisher protested during the campaign that she was not allowed to participate in television forums featuring only two of the Republican candidates, and after the election, she filed a complaint regarding Dole's residency requirement.

She challenged incumbent Mel Watt in North Carolina's 12th Congressional district in 2004 and 2006.

Fisher said that she would like to be the first black Republican female elected to Congress; however, Mia Love actually became the first black Republican female elected to Congress.

A life member of the NAACP and a lifelong Republican, Fisher was the Republican National Committeewoman for the state of North Carolina.

Fisher ran against incumbent Congressman Mel Watt of the North Carolina's 12th congressional district in 2004.

In 2004, Watt won with 67% of the vote, with Fisher gaining 60% of the vote in more Republican Davidson County.

Fisher raised $400,000 to oppose Watt in 2006, with most of the money spent on direct mail; she said the national Republican Party had not given her "one dime of support," but local organizations were supportive.

In 2006, Fisher ran against Watt for the second time.

He claimed that Watt ignored his constituents at the expense of travel related to his chairmanship of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Fisher's campaign theme was "Get a Doctor in the House" and she recommended a "prescription" composed of ten platform planks.

She noted in 2006, "No administration had previously had more than two African-Americans in such significant Cabinet-level positions."

Fisher supported a flat tax, small businesses ("many of which started in our communities"), gun rights ("which [have] often made a difference in the African-American community's security"), and expanded education options.

At the 2008 North Carolina Republican Party state convention, held at the Joseph Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, Fisher was elected as the National Republican Committeewoman for North Carolina.

Running against the incumbent, establishment candidate Mary Frances Forrester, wife of state Sen. Jim Forrester, Fisher's win was viewed as a surprise, underdog victory.

As of the end of 2008, Fisher was one of three African Americans on the RNC.

She endorsed Katon Dawson for RNC chairman that year.

Fisher later called for the winner of the RNC race, Michael S. Steele, to resign after less than two months in office.

In 2008, Fisher told Talking Points Memo that the fundraising organization she had hired had given her back only $30,000 of the $400,000 she had raised in the cycle, directing the rest to its affiliated private vendors, in what echoed previous complaints listed at TPM.

Fisher was re-elected in 2012, again defeating Forrester.

Fisher ran for the North Carolina General Assembly from North Carolina's 77th House district in 2018.

She lost the election to Lorene T. Coates.

Fisher wrote in The North Carolina Conservative that the Republican Party had a long history of black candidates for office, including the first black senator Hiram Revels and the first black congressman, Joseph Rainey, and four of the first six black senators.

Fisher continued: "In the rush to find fault while looking for a rightward turn, people forget that it was the Democrats who brought in poll taxes which kept us from voting; were behind the Jim Crow laws which separated us into white and colored; vigorously supported the Ku Klux Klan; and kept us out of their party and from unions and opportunities dictating a say in the course of our lives... The Great Society of Lyndon Johnson took on segregation but, in so doing to some, possibly undermined the social fabric of an independent people in its push for a safety net, which abolished individual responsibility and accountability for behavior and actions."

Fisher mentioned that George W. Bush brought a level of diversity to his cabinet "like no other," mentioning Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Rod Paige, and Alphonso Jackson.