From staff reports

ROXBORO -- Durham attorney and Chapel Hill resident Ken Lewis will formally announce his candidacy as a Democrat for U.S. Senate at his grandparents' family farm at 538 Outlaw Road, Roxboro at 3 p.m. Sunday.

The Womble Carlyle corporate and business attorney has never run for office before, but has been heavily involved in politics, working on the unsuccessful Democratic Senate campaigns of Harvey Gantt and Erskine Bowles, and President Barack Obama's historic primary and general election wins in North Carolina in 2008.

Among other Democrats expected to enter the race is state Attorney General Roy Cooper, the presumed frontrunner to oppose Republican incumbent Richard Burr in next November's general election.

Lewis' announcement will be followed by a picnic for supporters and friends.

In addition to Womble Carlyle, which is based in Durham's Research Triangle Park, Lewis has worked with powerhouse law firms in Charlotte and Raleigh and was a partner at a law firm he formed in Raleigh in 1994 -- Burford & Lewis -- that moved to Durham in 2002. He left to join Womble Carlyle in 2006.

Lewis, 47, is a Duke University alumnus, as is wife of 20 years, Holly Ewell Lewis. Ken Lewis went on to earn a law degree at Harvard. The Lewises have three children, Evan (15), Marshall (14) and Maya (9). The family attends Asbury Temple United Methodist Church in Durham.