N. Carolina Republican candidate Jim Snyder dead at 77

LEXINGTON, N.C. (AP) — A memorial service will be held Friday for Jim Snyder Jr., an attorney, author and conservative candidate for statewide office in North Carolina.

Snyder, 77, died Sunday at his Lexington home after an extended illness, daughter Elizabeth Snyder Lancaster said Thursday.

Snyder won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 2004 before losing to Democrat Beverly Perdue in the general election. He also competed unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor in 2008 and for U.S. Senate in both 2002, losing to Elizabeth Dole, and in 2014, losing to Thom Tillis.

Lancaster said her father ran for elected office because he “wanted to make a positive difference for his community, for the state, for the world ... and felt a calling to do that."

Snyder grew up in Lexington and ultimately attended Wake Forest University, where he played basketball, and went to its law school. He served briefly in the North Carolina legislature in the early 1970's to serve out his father's unexpired term when he died. Snyder kept the family's law firm in Lexington going after his father's death and practiced law until 2018, Lancaster said.

A larger-than-life figure who stood at 6 feet, 7 inches (2 meters), Snyder also wrote nearly 20 books, including novels, recollections and “The Conservative Mind: A New Model for Government.”

The service was scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at First Baptist Church in Lexington. In addition to Lancaster, Snyder's survivors include his wife, Sandra Craver Snyder, daughter Courtney Snyder Brown and six grandchildren.