How a Senator's Fatal Car Crash Still Echoes Through a Family and #NCPOL Today

Do Politics Better Podcast · Jun 11, 2026 · 56m

Mark Ezzell, Director of the North Carolina Governor's Highway Safety Program, was in his early 20s when his father, Sen. Jim Ezzell, died on Capital Boulevard in Raleigh on the eve of session starting in 1991.

That loss not only changed Mark's life forever, it also created an opening in the North Carolina Senate for a young House member named Roy Cooper.

But this story is about more than politics, it's also about perseverance and grace. Senator Ezzell, who lived with cerebral palsy, and his wife made the intentional decision to adopt a child with a disability. At age eight, Mark was adopted…