Eldon Sharpe "Buck" Newton III (born July 5, 1968) is an American lawyer and politician who serves as a Republican state senator in the

North Carolina General Assembly The North Carolina General Assembly is the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Government of North Carolina, state government of North Carolina. The legislature consists of two chambers: the North Carolina Senate, Senate and the North Ca ...

(the state's legislature) representing N.C. Senate District 4 ( Wilson,

Greene Greene may refer to: Places United States *Greene, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Greene, Iowa, a city * Greene, Maine, a town ** Greene (CDP), Maine, in the town of Greene * Greene (town), New York **Greene (village), New York, in the to ...

and Wayne counties). Newton originally won a seat in the North Carolina Senate in the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

election by defeating the Democratic incumbent, Albin B. Swindell. In

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, Newton was the Republican nominee for

North Carolina Attorney General The attorney general of North Carolina is a statewide elected office in the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. The attorney general is a state constitutional officer, constitutional officer responsible for representing state agencies i ...

, losing to Democrat

Josh Stein Joshua Harold Stein (born September 13, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the 76th List of governors of North Carolina, governor of North Carolina since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat ...

by 25,000 votes, a 0.5% margin. In

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, Newton won a seat in North Carolina Senate District 4, defeating incumbent Democrat Toby Fitch by a 16 point margin.

Early life and education

A native of Wilson, North Carolina, Newton graduated from Hunt High School. He received his bachelor's degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

from

Appalachian State University Appalachian State University (), or App State, is a Public university, public research university in Boone, North Carolina, United States. It was founded as a normal school, teachers' college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and th ...

. After college, Newton was an aide to Senator

Jesse Helms Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 – July 4, 2008) was an American politician. A leader in the Conservatism in the United States, conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the ...

on the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

Foreign Relations Committee. Newton is a graduate of the

Campbell University Campbell University is a private Christian university in Buies Creek, North Carolina, United States. Campbell's main campus in Buies Creek is home to its College of Arts & Sciences, College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, Divinity School, Scho ...

School of Law. He has practiced law for 16 years at his firm, Newton and Lee, in Wilson.

State office

From 2007 to 2011, Newton served as the chairman for the Wilson County Republican Party before taking office in the state capital in early 2011, replacing State Senator Albin B. Swindell. In response to the state's law on LGBT issues Newton, at a conservative rally supporting the North Carolina's House Bill 2 (a.k.a. "HB2"), said “Go home, tell your friends and family who had to work today what this is all about and how hard we must fight to keep our state straight.” In a later interview, Newton said his remarks at the rally were intended to mean “keep men out of the ladies’ room.” Newton has also said that "folks that wave the rainbow flags” need to get used to “the way things have always been in this state.” Newton ran as the Republican candidate for the North Carolina Attorney General election in 2016, but lost to

, the Democratic nominee. He was elected to the State Senate again in 2022, defeating incumbent Senator Toby Fitch. In 2024, Newton sponsored legislation to prohibit the wearing of masks in public. His legislation made no exception for wearing masks for health reasons.

References

External links

North Carolina General Assembly - Senator E. S. (Buck) Newton (Rep)Buck Newton at BallotpediaProject Vote Smart – Senator Buck Newton (NC)
profile , - , - Republican Party North Carolina state senators Campbell University alumni Appalachian State University alumni People from Wilson, North Carolina Living people 1968 births 21st-century members of the North Carolina General Assembly {{NorthCarolina-politician-stub