Polk County voters have a chance this election to choose a candidate to represent the state in the U.S. Senate for North Carolina.

Incumbent Senator Richard Burr (R) is being challenged this year by Elaine Marshall (D) and Michael Beitler (L).

Burr has held the U.S. Senate seat since 2005. Burr previously was a U.S. Congressman, elected in 1994.

The son of a minister, Burr and his family moved to Winston-Salem when he was young. He graduated from Wake Forest University and spent 17 years with Carswell Distributing, a wholesale commercial products company.

Marshall is currently North Carolinas Secretary of State and previously served in the North Carolina Senate in 1993-1994.

Marshall was born in Maryland to a farmer father who also served as a volunteer firefighter and her mother was the organist in the family church. She graduated from Campbell University with a law degree and has worked as both a teacher and an attorney.

Beitler grew up in east Baltimore and earned a B.S. degree from the University of Central Florida. He worked in the banking industry prior to teaching. He has been teaching at the Bryan School of Business & Economics at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro for the past 13 years and works as a consultant. He is also an author.