Elisabeth Motsinger, a Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board member, plans to run for Congress this year.
She has filed the initial paperwork to run in North Carolina's 5th District, a seat currently held by Rep. Virginia Foxx.
Foxx, a Republican, was first elected in 2004 and said through a spokeswoman Monday that she plans to seek re-election.
Motsinger, a Democrat, said she plans an official announcement next Tuesday. The formal filing period opens next month, but Motsinger already has filed a statement of candidacy signaling her intent to run.
She has at least one announced opponent in the Democratic primary: Treva Johnson, the Wilkes County Democratic Party chairwoman who announced her candidacy late last year. Attempts to reach Johnson on Monday through the county party and the email address listed on her campaign website were not successful.
Motsinger said she will continue to serve on the school board during the campaign, and system spokesman Theo Helm confirmed she can keep her seat unless she wins higher office.
Until then, Motsinger said, "my commitment is to do the very best job I can for the school board."
Motsinger said she would discuss congressional campaign issues at next week's official announcement. She also is working to get a campaign website established, she said. She hand-delivered her candidacy statement to the Federal Elections Commission late last month during a trip to Maryland, where her son lives.
The 5th District includes large parts of Forsyth, Davidson, Rowan and Iredell counties, plus all of Yadkin, Alexander, Wilkes, Alleghany, Ashe and Watauga counties and a slice of Catawba.
Whichever Democrat advances to the November general election will likely face an uphill battle. Registered Republican voters in the district outnumber registered Democrats by about 29,000 people, according to state statistics.
The area voted heavily Republican in the 2010 elections, choosing U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., with 63 percent of the vote. In the 2008 election, 57 percent of voters chose the Republican ticket led by presidential nominee John McCain, and just over 53 percent chose the Republican gubernatorial candidate.
Those figures are based on district maps the General Assembly approved last year. The maps, drawn by the assembly's Republican majority, are being challenged in court but won preliminary approval from the Justice Department.
A hearing on the various lawsuits against the maps is scheduled for Thursday, the Associated Press reported Monday. As part of those cases, map opponents have asked the courts to delay elections in North Carolina, as well as candidate-qualifying periods.
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