JLF’s John Hood weighs in here on the sudden death of Keith Crisco, who was locked in a battle for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 2nd District seat in Congress. Here’s a taste of John looking back at first meeting Mr. Crisco in the mid-90s. I hope you’ll read the entire piece.

After Keith’s presentation to the Friday Fellows, I struck up a conversation with him. Despite some differences of opinion, we found we had much in common. David Stedman, the conservative Democrat for whom he had once worked, was one of the John Locke Foundation’s seed donors back in 1989. Keith became a sometime JLF donor, as well. A loyal reader of my column in his hometown paper, the Asheboro Courier-Tribune, Keith would periodically send me letters — by snail, yes, not electron — to offer either cordial praise or respectful disagreement. He invited me on more than one occasion to speak at Pfeiffer, and I, in turn, met with Keith often when he came to the capital city. I saw a lot more of Keith after 2009, when he agreed to join incoming Gov. Bev Perdue’s Cabinet as secretary of commerce.

In early 2012, we ran into each other at a downtown restaurant and got to talking about the upcoming election cycle. Perdue had decided not to run for reelection, and many North Carolina Democrats began to fear that Republicans were poised to make substantial political gains in 2012 to add to their 2010 victories. But Keith wasn’t down in the dumps. In fact, he told me that he was thinking seriously about running for the Democratic nomination to replace Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, who would be taking on Pat McCrory for the top job.

I didn’t like his chances and told him so. Others must have, too, because Keith decided to forgo the race (former state Rep. Linda Coleman ended up with the Democratic nod, losing to Republican Dan Forest in the fall). But that didn’t mean Keith was finished with politics, as we now know. This year, he ran for the Democratic nomination in North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District. It’s a strongly Republican seat currently held by Rep. Renee Ellmers, but running uphill always seemed to be Keith’s style.

Rest in peace, Mr. Crisco.