Ex-Senate Candidate Grant to Run for North Carolina Insurance Commissioner

Unsuccessful 2014 U.S. Senate candidate Heather Grant says she’ll run for North Carolina insurance commissioner in 2016.

Grant of Wilkes County said in June she will seek the Republican Party’s nomination for the job. Current Democratic incumbent Wayne Goodwin has served since 2009.

Grant is a nurse practitioner and U.S. Army veteran who finished fourth in the eight-candidate GOP primary for Senate with almost 5 percent of the vote. Primary winner Thom Tillis is now in the Senate.

Grant says she’s running because it’s time to focus on “ensuring North Carolina residents have their freedoms and security so that they can grow and prosper.”

The insurance commissioner regulates insurance companies and their agents, and judges rate requests. The commissioner is also the state fire marshal.