N.C. Republicans for Obama launched Thursday.

More than 200 registered Republicans from across the state signed onto a petition supporting Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the presidential race this November. 

In a conference call with reporters, former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he decided to support Obama in the Rhode Island primary and head up a national Republicans for Obama group out of disappointment with President Bush's foreign and economic policies.

He also said that Obama ran the best campaign.

"His campaign was the best run, best organized, and he was the CEO of that," he said. "All the other campaigns had cost overruns and management shakeups. Not the Obama campaign. And that translates into administration."

Pamella Cash-Roper, an unemployed nurse and lifelong Republican from Pittsboro who appeared at an Obama rally in June, said she supports Obama because of his approach to the economy and health care.

"Voters in North Carolina cannot afford four more years of the same failed Bush economic policies," she said.

The complete list of Republicans for Obama is online here. 

Barack Obama was introduced by an unemployed woman.

After Gov. Mike Easley introduced them, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and Pamella Cash-Roper took the stage at the N.C. State Fairgrounds.

Cash-Roper, a lifelong Republican, told the crowd that she and her husband are struggling because of medical problems, losing their jobs and the high price of gas and prescription drugs.

"The help we always thought would be there was somehow nowhere to be seen," he said.

Obama then thanked her.

"Its not always easy to share stories of hardship," he said. "I'm very grateful to her."

Correction: An earlier version of this post misspelled Cash-Roper's name.