McKissick has represented Durham and Granville counties since 2007.
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He submitted his resignation effective Tuesday to Gov. Roy Cooper, who had nominated McKissick to the commission that regulates utility prices in May.
McKissick served as the Senior Deputy Democratic Leader in the Senate and previously as Chairman of the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus and Chairman of Durham County's Democratic Party, according to his campaign website.
He has a law practice in Durham and also serves as an adjunct professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.
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McKissick received his law degree from Duke University's School of Law, a master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, a master's degree in Regional Planning (MRP) from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
He taught classes at North Carolina Central University's School of Law with his late father, Judge Floyd B. McKissick, Sr., a prominent civil rights activist who became the first African-American student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Law School in 1951.
Now the local Democratic party will choose someone to fill the remainder of McKissick's term.