Thomas Farr, conservative lawyer behind decades of GOP political wins in North Carolina, dies at 69

Thomas Farr, the Republican attorney who was a key behind-the-scenes figure throughout decades worth of conservative victories in North Carolina, has died. He was 69.

Farr died on Monday following a series of heart problems, Phil Strach, a fellow election law attorney, told the Associated Press. Strach said he had spoken to Farr's family about his death. Strach declined to tell the wire service where Farr died.

Farr had been involved in North Carolina politics since the 1980s, helping on campaigns for the late U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. He continued that work until his death, frequently helping Republican leaders craft legal strategies — and defending many of their most controversial new laws in court.

“Redistricting, voter ID, you name it,” Dallas Woodhouse, the former North Carolina Republican Party executive director, said in an interview Tuesday. “Somewhere, Tom’s fingers were involved.”

North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore wrote in a statement: “His influence on public policy and advocacy in North Carolina and beyond is undeniable. Tom's contributions to the legal field, his tireless advocacy for justice, and his commitment to the U.S. Constitution and the founding principles of our country will continue to inspire those who knew him for many years to come.”

National Republicans tried rewarding Farr for his efforts on the party’s behalf. President George W. Bush twice nominated him for a job as a federal judge. President Donald Trump did, too.

"Thomas Farr is widely respected as one of the best legal minds in North Carolina," Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis said when Trump nominated Farr in 2017, WRAL reported at the time. "He is impeccably qualified, and I am confident he will be an independent-minded judge committed to fairness and will faithfully apply the law."

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But Farr never became a judge, due in part to criticisms that his political career was defined largely by anti-Black discrimination. Trump’s second and final attempt to elevate him to the federal bench failed in 2018. Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who’s also the only Black Republican in the Senate, joined with the entire Democratic caucus in opposing Farr’s nomination that year. Scott cited Farr’s political work for Helms, a longtime member of Congress who was often accused of having racist views.

Farr served worked on Helms’ Senate campaigns in 1984 and again in 1990, as legal counsel.

Critics focused on Farr's time serving as a lawyer for Helms’ reelection campaign in 1990, the AP reported. The U.S. Department of Justice alleged that postcards sent by the campaign mostly to Black voters were intended to intimidate them from voting. Farr told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that he wasn't consulted about the postcards, did not have any role in drafting or sending them and was appalled by the language on them.

Democratic opponents also cited Farr’s more recent work defending North Carolina Republican state lawmakers in court. Foremost was his work defending widespread changes to elections laws that GOP leaders passed in 2013 — and which were struck down in 2016 as unconstitutional by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for being intentionally written to “target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.”

Woodhouse, who was leading the state GOP at the time and worked on the effort to put Farr on the bench, said that sort of opposition was unfair.

“He was disappointed about that,” Woodhouse said Tuesday. “Tom was a good man. He was a brilliant lawyer. And I think a lot of us felt it was unfair to him because he was an attorney who represented clients. And it was who he had worked for, especially Senator Helms, used against him.”

Strach, who worked with Farr for 25 years, most recently as a fellow law partner at the Nelson Mullins firm, called Farr's defeat the result of politics that blew allegations out of proportion, the Associated Press reported. Farr was “confused and perplexed by the negative blowback” that he received, given that he believed his redistricting work in the 1990s plowed new ground to protect Black voting rights, Strach told the AP. Strach called Farr a compassionate person who helped the next generation of lawyers.

Kieran Shanahan, another longtime GOP insider who helped recruit Farr to Nelson Mullins, said they bonded years ago over their shared political activism —  even at a time when Democrats dominated state politics.

“I remember the early days when Republicans were meeting in phone booths, but he and I were usually there," said Shanahan, who also led the North Carolina Department of Public Safety under Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

Like others among Farr's friends, he remains critical of the national push to deny Farr a seat as a federal judge. But Farr was absolutely a committed conservative, Shanahan added.

"Another thing I admired about him, it was never about the money for him," he said. "He was all about the cause."

An Ohio native, Farr went to Hillsdale College in Michigan and then law school at Emory University in Georgia before heading to Washington, D.C. He worked for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which was formed to oppose organized labor, and as a congressional staffer before connecting with Helms.