While party leaders in Washington, D.C., appear content to wait for state Attorney General Roy Cooper (D) to make up his mind about challenging Sen. Richard Burr (R) next year, Democrat Kenneth Lewis, a fundraiser for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign last year, is moving ahead with his own Senate plans.

The Raleigh News & Observer reported Wednesday that Lewis informed state party leaders over the weekend that he was jumping into the race.

Lewis, who lives in Chapel Hill, is a Winston-Salem native who clerked for a former state Supreme Court justice and has worked in law firms in Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham. His fundraising work for Obama began during the president’s 2004 Senate campaign, and last year Lewis helped lead financial operations for Obama in the Tar Heel State.