North Carolina’s former U.S. Senator Kay Hagan unexpectedly passed away Monday morning (October 28) after battling encephalitis for almost three years.

Hagan served one term in the U.S. Senate after defeating Elizabeth Dole in 2008. Before that, she was a state senator from Greensboro for ten years, rising to chair the budget committee which set some of the last robust funding levels for our state Department of Environmental Quality and other important environmental programs.

“Sen. Hagan was a champion for our values, and spent decades fighting to protect North Carolinians from polluters. We will miss her,” said Carrie Clark, NCLCV executive director.

Along with the national League of Conservation Voters, NCLCV supported Hagan’s unfortunately unsuccessful 2014 re-election campaign.