Background
He is also the son of former United States. Representative and former Charlotte Mayor Sue Myrick.
He is also the son of former United States. Representative and former Charlotte Mayor Sue Myrick.
A Republican, Forest is an architect by trade. Prior to his run for Lieutenant Governor, he was the senior partner and office president of North Carolina’s largest architectural firm, Little Diversified Architectural Consulting.
He holds a degree in architecture from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and formerly served on the University of North Carolina Charlotte College of Architecture Advisory Board.
He is the former chair of Wake Forest Pregnancy Support Services and former chair of The Triangle Leadership Forum in Raleigh. In 2012, in his first run for office, Forest placed first (with a 67,000 vote margin of victory) in a crowded May primary election, which included Speaker Pro Tempore of the North Carolina House of Representatives Dale Folwell, Representative Gray Mills, and Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley.
Forest went on to defeat Gurley in a July 17 runoff election, winning 96 of 100 counties, to become the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor. His candidacy was heavily backed by both the Republican Party and the Tea party movement.
In November, Forest defeated former State Representative Linda Coleman in the general election for Lieutenant
Governor. After a provisional ballot recount, Forest"s margin of victory was only about 7,000 votes, or.16%. Upon his swearing-in on January
7, 2013, Forest became the first Republican Lieutenant Governor since James Carson Gardner left office in 1993, and only the second Republican elected to the office since 1897.
Lieutenant Governor Forest presides over the North Carolina Senate as President of the Senate. He is also the chair of the East-Learning Commission and Chairman of the Energy Policy Council. His office is located at the Hawkins-Hartness House in downtown Raleigh.
North Carolina Republican Party, Republican Party.
He is a member of the North Carolina State Board of Education, the North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges, the North Carolina Board of Economic Development, and the Military Affairs Commission.