[1] She was elected as an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) candidate in the Assembly election of 2003;[2] however, she defected to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in 2004 along with Jeffrey Donaldson MP, MLA for Lagan Valley and Arlene Foster, MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
[3][4] Norah Beare worked for forty years as a secretary in a number of different companies and then became in 1997 the Personal Assistant to Jeffrey Donaldson.
On Donaldson's advice she was selected as the third UUP candidate for the November 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly elections.
[5] In December 2003 she resigned, with Donaldson and Arlene Foster, from the UUP and subsequently joined the DUP in January 2004.
[citation needed] In January 2007, Beare was not selected by the Lagan Valley DUP association to fight the next Northern Ireland Assembly elections due in early March 2007.