Ada Fisher

She never married but adopted two sons, who are now adults. She died on October 7, 2022, two weeks before her 75th birthday.

Fisher ran for the North Carolina General Assembly from North Carolina's 77th House district in 2018. She lost the election to Lorene T. Coates.

At the 2008 North Carolina Republican Party state convention, held at the Joseph Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, Fisher was elected as the National Republican Committeewoman for North Carolina. Running against the incumbent, establishment candidate Mary Frances Forrester, wife of state Sen. Jim Forrester, Fisher's win was viewed as a surprise, underdog victory. Fisher was re-elected in 2012, again defeating Forrester.

As of the end of 2008, Fisher was one of three African Americans on the RNC. She endorsed Katon Dawson for RNC chairman that year. Fisher later called for the winner of the RNC race, Michael S. Steele, to resign after less than two months in office.

In August 2008, she emailed a link to a YouTube video of rearranged clips of President Barack Obama "indulging the darkest conspiracy theories about himself." She wrote "This tape should be investigated and verified. I am not an expert on tapes but if this isn't doctored we have a constitutional issue of humongous proportions to deal with."

In 2006, Fisher ran against Watt for the second time. He claimed that Watt ignored his constituents at the expense of travel related to his chairmanship of the Congressional Black Caucus. Fisher's campaign theme was "Get a Doctor in the House" and she recommended a "prescription" composed of ten platform planks. Fisher said that she had put 73,000 miles on her car traveling the six counties of the 12th District for her campaign.

Fisher mentioned that George W. Bush brought a level of diversity to his cabinet "like no other," mentioning Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Rod Paige, and Alphonso Jackson. She noted in 2006, "No administration had previously had more than two African-Americans in such significant Cabinet-level positions."

Fisher ran against incumbent Congressman Mel Watt of the North Carolina's 12th congressional district in 2004. In 2004, Watt won with 67% of the vote, with Fisher gaining 60% of the vote in more Republican Davidson County. Fisher raised $400,000 to oppose Watt in 2006, with most of the money spent on direct mail; she said the national Republican Party had not given her "one dime of support," but local organizations were supportive. In 2008, Fisher told Talking Points Memo that the fundraising organization she had hired had given her back only $30,000 of the $400,000 she had raised in the cycle, directing the rest to its affiliated private vendors, in what echoed previous complaints listed at TPM.

Fisher ran for the United States Senate in 2002 in the Republican primary against Elizabeth Dole, who went on to win the general election; Fisher placed fourth in a field of seven Republican candidates. Fisher protested during the campaign that she was not allowed to participate in television forums featuring only two of the Republican candidates, and after the election, she filed a complaint regarding Dole's residency requirement.

Upon receiving her medical degree, Fisher participated in a residency at the University of Rochester in family medicine. She later ran a rural North Carolina health clinic and a 16-county substance abuse program. In addition, she worked for two Fortune 500 companies, including medical director for Amoco in Chicago. Before retiring in 2000 due to a leg disability, Fisher served as Chief of Occupational Health Services at the W.G. "Bill" Hefner Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salisbury.

Ada M. Fisher (October 21, 1947 – October 7, 2022) was an American physician from Salisbury, North Carolina, and a frequent Republican candidate for office. She challenged incumbent Mel Watt in North Carolina's 12th Congressional district in 2004 and 2006. Fisher said that she would like to be the first black Republican female elected to Congress; however, Mia Love actually became the first black Republican female elected to Congress.

Born on October 21, 1947, Fisher was the daughter of Rev. Miles Mark Fisher of Durham, North Carolina, himself the son of a former slave and his Seminole Indian wife. Rev. Fisher was also a Republican, as was her grandfather, who was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation when he was ten years old. Fisher attended Durham public schools, graduating from Hillside High School with honors. She then graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in biology.