Signs of Life

 

Jamie Ager, in his element

Last Saturday, the State Board of Elections (SBOE) released new voter registration stats covering the first half of 2026:

Unaffiliated up 4,136, to total of 3,113,007

Democrats up 578, to total of 2,316,541

Republicans up 379, to total of 2,327,131

[The Center Square]

Democrats now rank third in registrations in North Carolina. By a hair, only 10,500 voters behind the Republicans. Perhaps ironically or perhaps prophetically, the only party to register fewer new voters than the Democrats so far in 2026 are the Republicans. Obviously, everyone's fate is in the hands of the numero uno Unaffiliateds. And I like them odds.

That 10k Republican advantage over Democrats becomes irrelevant if pollsters are right that an "enthusiasm gap" has yawned between the two (thank you, DJT!). The most recent right track/wrong track polling I've seen from North Carolina was conducted by High Point University in March and April, questioning 800 registered voters (703 of them considered "likely voters"). More of them thought North Carolina was on the wrong track (47%) than on the right track (31–32%), with a whopping 20% "undecided" because they haven't paid attention and don't know what's been going on.

I was just reading in the Asheville Watchdog about the enthusiasm gap that's opened in the 11th Congressional District, where Democrat Jamie Ager is outraising incumbent Republican Chuck Edwards some 9-1. In the heat of Ager's rise -- on September 11, 2025, the Cook Political Report moved the 11th from "Solid Republican" to "Likely Republican"; on June 18, 2026, Cook moved the race again, this time from "Likely Republican" to "Lean Republican" -- Congressman Edwards, lightening ship, sold all his McDonald's franchises. Ager had Pete Buttigieg at a fundraiser out on his farm. One campaign has a funerary aspect; the other pulses with life.

Total registrations by party in the 11th CD (latest numbers):

Democratic 107,989

Republican 180,267

Unaffiliated 164,871

Like I said before, I like them odds.

He Loved Those McDonald's

 

Congressman Chuck Edwards of the 11th CD put out a press release yesterday that he and his wife Teresa have sold all their McDonald's restaurants in Henderson, Transylvania, and Haywood counties to good friends in Asheville who are already McDonald's franchisees. The Edwardses owned seven McDonald's, according to the letter that Teresa addressed to Leslie Boyd, banning her from entering all of them because Boyd was leading a boycott. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the Congressman himself, Teresa Edwards has been essentially the general manager of all the restaurants ever since Edwards was first elected to the NC Senate a decade ago. The demands got very much heavier after Edwards went to Washington in the 2022 elections. The responsibilities Teresa Edwards carried might crush a young person, let-alone a 65-year-old woman who had helped Chuck build the McDonald's empire over four decades. I can see selling out of that treadmill and retiring.

But retiring ain't in the cards right now.

The Congressman is locked in a reelection death-match with good-old-boy Democrat Jamie Ager, with various polls and pundits suggesting Edwards would be suddenly vulnerable in a Blue Wave. Plus bad press has dogged Edwards. Hurricane Helene survivors -- and they are legion in his district -- have not stopped biting his ankles over the paltry Trump admin treatment of the region, and now he's under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for wholly inappropriate contact and interaction with 20-something girl staffers.

Selling a highly profitable and beloved set of restaurants takes on the odor of panic, doesn't it? Beloved? Edwards has talked about how, at the age of 16, he went to work at a McDonald's that he later was able to buy, and he took justifiable pride in the kind of joy he was able to bring to his customers for over 40 years. He has put his bone and blood into building that chain of franchises, so selling out must hurt more than a little. Does he need to juice his campaign budget, because fundraising has been lagging? (Trump doesn't seem likely to chip off a chunk of his gigantic MAGA Inc. fund -- reportedly at least $350,000,000 -- which Trump appears to be hoarding for himself. But of course he would.)

Selling those restaurants at just this time draws attention to itself as something quite extraordinary.

 

Congressman Lists Addresses Where He Hopes Protesters Won't Show Up. Oops

 

Photo 828NewsNOW

 

 

Last November, Progressive activist Leslie Boyd of Asheville called for a boycott of Congressman Chuck Edwards's McDonald's restaurants because of his voting record:

“He says he stands for us, but he voted to reduce the availability of health care and food assistance for millions of Americans, including his own constituents,” Leslie Boyd said, speaking as a leader of Asheville Fights Back Network and calling for a walking picket at an Edwards McDonald's in Hendersonville. “He also voted for the torment of immigrants we’re seeing in the streets of North Carolina right now. That looks to me like he is the enemy.”

On March 31st, Boyd published on Facebook that she'd gotten a letter banning her for life from Edwards's McDonald's restaurants:

OK, this is freaking hilarious!!!!

My "representative " in Congress, Chuck Edwards, sent me a certified letter banning me from all his McDonald's restaurants.

First of all, I haven't eaten at a McDonald's in more than 25 years, so that's really no skin off my nose.

But here's the best part: He has hidden all their [McDonald's] addresses in real estate holding companies, so I couldn't figure out which ones were his.

Well, now I know, and now, so do you.

The letter:

 

This Fast-Food King Serves Only Nothingburgers to Western North Carolina

 

Congressman Chuck Edwards

This unsigned editorial in the Smoky Mountain News pretty much blew me away, so I'm copying the whole thing here. Congressman Chuck Edwards has been taking sustained fire over his failure to deliver adequately on Trump promises of Federal disaster help for the Western counties in his Congressional district 11. He's taking on water, and more eyes are on the prospects that Democrat Jamie Ager might actually beat him in November if the 2026 Blue Wave actually hits our shores.

Western North Carolina pulled into the congressional drive-thru after Hurricane Helene, placed a large order and waited. And waited. And waited.

What Rep. Chuck Edwards finally handed his constituents was an empty paper bag containing a rather large nothingburger — heavy on branding, light on substance and nowhere near the $60 billion recovery order his storm-famished district actually placed.

Sure, Congress served up a whopping $100 billion continuing resolution/disaster relief bill in December 2024 — Edwards claimed authorship — but for some damn reason, the meat of it wasn’t designated for Edwards’ constituents. Estimates put North Carolina’s piece of the pie at between $9 billion and $15 billion. In fast food terms, that’s like asking for a 10-piece McNuggets but only getting one.

Days ago on social media, Edwards claimed he was “fighting for Western North Carolina” and bragged about the $6.5 billion he says he’s dished out; not exactly a supersized Big Mac meal with large fry — more like a few stray ketchup packets, leaving people who’ve lost their livelihoods and homes asking, “Where’s the beef?”

In Swannanoa and within sight of some of those damaged homes, Edwards famously gave Trump a McDonald’s fry cook pin — a fitting gesture from a congressman who owns multiple franchises and seems more comfortable serving up symbolism than substance.

In the end, Edwards has delivered a master class in empty calories. Big branding. Greasy fealty. Zero nutrition. Western North Carolina ordered disaster relief and got a Happy Meal toy and a few napkins instead.

While somebody should congratulate Edwards on his award by offering him a steaming hot beverage from the McCafe menu, technically, no one can — because coffee is for closers.

Chuck Edwards town hall, Asheville, March 2025

 

The Boycott of Chuck Edwards' Fast Food

 

According to reporting by George Fabe Russell for the Hendersonville Times-News, a coalition of activist groups are so upset with Congressman Chuck Edwards (CD11) over his vote for the Big Beautiful Bill and his subsequent shrugging off of the pain of thousands thrown off SNAP food benefits -- so upset that they're taking aim at his solar plexus, his profit from seven McDonald's he owns in Hendersonville, Brevard, and Canton. A coalition called the Asheville Fights Back Network plans picketing and boycott of the McDonald’s on 4 Seasons Boulevard in Hendersonville today and again on Sunday, according to a Nov. 24 news release. The Asheville Fights Back Network is made up of Indivisible Asheville, the Western Circle of the NC Poor People’s Campaign, Good Trouble WNC, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and a marching protest band called Brass Your Heart. This coalition has a sound and a flavor!

“He’s making money off of us while he’s withholding food stamps. He voted to cut SNAP, he voted to cut the health insurance subsidies, he voted to spend so much money on chasing down immigrants,” NC Poor People’s Campaign leader Leslie Boyd said, announcing the economic boycott. Another rep from the Poor People's Campaign pointed out that the cuts to SNAP and the ending of Affordable Care Act subsidies would affect 40% of Edwards’ constituents, in a district still recovering from Helene. “We see what’s happening in Washington right now as an emergency. People are going to go hungry. People are going to go without healthcare. It's a crisis in the making,” said an organizer of the boycott. 

Reps of Asheville Fights Back have met with Edwards and have come away concluding that a well-to-do businessman just can't wrap his head around the realities of poverty and helplessness -- the real impact of cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill. (According to one of the leaders of the protest, “One thing about Chuck Edwards, he does keep his doors open.” He's also held some town halls that got contentious. That's brave and admirable of a Rep.) The economic boycott of his business is meant to hurt, to get his mind a little more focused on the human cost of his partisanship in blindly following the party line.

A Genuine Hero Joins the NC11 Republican Primary for Congress

 

Nearly a year after Hurricane Helene caused $60 billion in damage across North Carolina, most local governments still haven’t received anywhere near the amount of money they’ve been promised by the federal government, with estimates coming in at less than 10%.

--Cory Vaillancourt, Smoky Mountain News

Adam Smith, getting a B12 shot in his backside in October 2024, inside the
Harley Davidson dealership operations HDQs for Savage Freedom
Photo Khadejeh Nikouyeh for the NandO

Congressman Chuck Edwards from Flat Rock, who took over Mark Meadows' old House seat after beating Madison Cawthorn in the Republican primary, has drawn his own primary challenger -- a big man with a huge reputation, Adam Smith, a former Green Beret and a local hero all around Swannanoa and throughout Buncombe County and now well beyond. He organized on-the-ground and in-the-air relief operations following Hurricane Helene, eventually named and capitalized it as the non-profit Savage Freedom Operations, with helicopters delivering supplies to people cut off by landslides and washed-out roads. It grew quickly into a large-scale relief effort operating out of a Harley-Davidson parking lot in Swannanoa, where Smith built a make-shift heliport. Smith eventually recruited a couple thousand more volunteers who were willing and capable of performing all sorts of work -- rebuilding private bridges, restoring roads, clearing debris. Adam Smith was their leader, their organizer, their trouble-shooter. He obviously knows how to get stuff done. Which makes like a formidable guy for Chuck Edwards to beat next March. (Take a look at his website.)

The Savage Freedom origin story has all kinds of cinematic appeal. When Hurricane Helene struck Western NC, Adam Smith's own wife and three-year-old daughter were up visiting friends on the Broad River outside Asheville -- in a house not more than 30 yards from the river. “I legitimately didn’t think there was any hope,” Smith said, but he was determined and resourceful like a Green Beret. With buddies who flew helicopters. And get them out he did.

What began as a mission to save his family quickly expanded when he realized the full scale of the disaster. Witnessing countless others trapped and desperate for help, Smith was joined by fellow veterans, volunteers, and resources under the banner of Savage Freedoms Relief Operations.

In the days that followed, the team grew into an agile, grassroots force—dubbed the “Redneck Air Force”—flying critical supplies into cut-off communities, conducting search-and-rescue missions, and restoring communication with STARLINK systems. Savage Ops became the lifeline for those forgotten by traditional disaster response, cementing its role as a symbol of resilience, ingenuity, and community-driven action. (Savage Freedom website)

"Savage Freedom’s response to Helene was the largest grassroots relief effort in the region, with thousands of volunteers, hundreds of air sorties, millions of pounds of supplies and nearly $700,000 raised in a month" (Vaillancourt).

When Trump was in Swannanoa following the storm to promise stuff he had no intention of delivering and to mime how concerned he was with the plight of people, Adam Smith got to introduce him at the podium and just incidentally lay the philosophical groundwork for challenging MAGA trooper Chuck Edwards next year and implicitly ding what Trump 2.0 was about to do via DOGE and presidential ExecOrders to not only disaster relief in Western NC but to all sorts of other agencies the people rely on. Smith said to Trump, “The biggest fear that Western North Carolina is sitting on right now ... is being forgotten. To have you here and have an opportunity to have this conversation at a national level will keep Western North Carolina on the map and not leave the communities holding the bag on the back end of this.”

Chuck Edwards

Holding the bag is exactly what's happened to the western mtns. The statistics in the headnote to this post don't even mention that the $110 billion relief bill passed by Congress last December -- much ballyhooed by Congressman Edwards, who claimed to have written it specifically for his district -- will dole out a paltry $15 billion to NC11 (at most -- $9 billion is more likely). Governor Stein recently begged the Trump people for some $13.5 billion -- quick! Quick ain't happening.

So Adam Smith is running against Edwards' handling of the disaster and his absence from accountability. Vaillancourt did a lengthy interview with Smith for the Smoky Mountain News. Smith comes across as a level-headed straight shooter, not a MAGAtron robot with a predictable hard line. He's clearly intelligent and offered Vaillancourt an interesting national bond idea for lowering the national debt. Of course he supports Trump on tariffs (really?) and immigration, but I don't see him parroting Trump like the rest of that tribe are pleased to do, slavishly without thinking, just as reflex.

Jamie Ager Announces for Congress in CD11

 

Photo Cory Vaillancourt

Reading this morning in the Smoky Mountain News about Jamie Ager, who announced he's running in the 11th Congressional District Democratic primary next March, setting up what may be a big battle for the nomination with Moe Davis, who ran for the seat in 2020 and is running again, about whom I've spilled a good deal of digital ink and to whom I've contributed campaign donations in the past. Moe Davis comes on hot where Jamie Ager is cooler. Ager told Cory Vaillancourt that he's more of a "happy warrior." So this will be a primary about political style as well as personal roots. Jamie Ager comes from Democratic Party nobility in Buncombe County; Moe Davis earned his spurs as a no-nonsense and morally upright member of the Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) corps, prosecuting terrorists at Guantanamo (while bravely opposing higher-ups over water-boarding). Davis is a relative newcomer to the 11th District (though he's a native of Shelby). His abrasiveness in 2020 ruffled a few feathers among establishment Democrats.

Jamie Ager is the grandson of Jamie Clarke (James McClure Clarke), famous for trading the 11th CD seat back and forth with Republican Bill Hendon in the 1980s. Both Ager's father John and brother Eric either served in the past (John) or is now serving (Eric) in the NC House. In other words, Jamie Ager comes from a family steeped in politics who seem to know how to do it.

Grandfather Clarke started the Hickory Nut Gap Farm, which specialized in dairy and apples. Jamie his grandson and now candidate for office runs the operation and has drawn praise for his "regenerative agriculture." He's 47. He earned a degree in environmental studies and sustainable agriculture from Warren Wilson College. The farm now encompasses some 250 acres of both family and leased land. Ager raises beef cattle, chickens, turkeys, and pigs — "all pasture-raised and hormone-free, using rotational grazing to promote soil health and carbon sequestration." The operation requires another 25 hired employees.

Ager is politically progressive but also practical-minded, as we say in the country. “My family’s legacy is kind of built around being environmentalists, which I 100% am," Jamie told Vaillancourt, "but I remember as a kid seeing some of this regulatory stuff come through, and when it hits the ground, it’s often kind of slightly ridiculous,” he said. Regulations are important for changing behavior, but they have to make sense to be effective (not to mention being accepted by the public as worth the hassle).

He believes entrepreneurship is the key to creating a resilient agricultural system and wants to see federal policy shift from incentivizing the cheapest food possible to rewarding sustainable, soil-friendly practices. He’s also concerned about the loss of farmland in North Carolina — the state was recently ranked second in the nation for farmland loss, behind Texas — and supports conservation easements and smarter development to preserve agricultural land for future generations.

Ager has sharp assessments of the incumbent congressman, fast-food-king Chuck Edwards, especially disaffection for Edwards' performance following Hurricane Helene. Two months after Helene, then-Gov. Roy Cooper and a delegation traveled to the White House with a $25 billion request toward an estimated $60 billion in damage. Rep. Edwards, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said he authored the relief bill that ultimately passed, but out of more than $100 billion in the bill, North Carolina has gotten scant and may get no more than $9 billion. “That’s frustrating, yeah, the fact that Chuck Edwards said we’re going to get all this money, and [he] actually sits in roles that can help facilitate getting that money, and then not actually being clear about what’s going on -- that’s a leadership problem,” Ager said.

While in Congress, Edwards has gone along with Republican budgeting and program-gutting, which has allowed maintenance to suffer in national parks like the Great Smoky Mountains. “It’s sort of this classic Republican move to defund things and then point out that they’re not operating well and to me, that’s just baloney,” Ager said. Congressman Edwards' cure is to start charging visitors to park. And when DOGE shut down the Social Security office in Edwards' district in Franklin, the congressman did nothing to protest the closure. 

When asked what's the matter with the Democratic Party, especially in a mainly rural district with a R+5 rating, Ager said, “There’s a level of condescension that comes out of urban areas for rural people,” he said. “That pisses me off.”

NOTE

There are at least two other declared Democratic candidates in CD11's congressional primary, but neither appears to have much of a base for competing credibly with Moe Davis or Jamie Ager.

The Return of Col. Moe Davis

 

In 2020, retired Air Force Col. Morris "Moe" Davis attracted a good deal of attention running in the Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional District and then in the fall election that year against that vivid train wreck, Madison Cawthorn. Cawthorn won the race by 12 points, but Davis brought some Democratic heat and raised a respectable $2.5 million for his campaign.

He says he's back for 2026, running for the same seat now occupied by Chuck Edwards, the former state senator who ousted Cawthorn in the 2022 Republican primary.

Davis ran a combative (some nervous liberals thought too combative) campaign against Cawthorn, highlighting the post-teenager's moral and ethical black holes. (Full disclosure: I contributed more than once to Davis's campaign.) Davis retired from the US Air Force at the rank of colonel and already had a high pre-candidacy national profile. He served two years as Chief Prosecutor of the Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay and resigned in protest because his superiors in the Air Force Judiciary and the General Counsel of the Department of Defense overruled his decision to disallow evidence obtained via CIA torture. In resigning his position, Davis declared that he wasn't going to take orders from people who think "waterboarding is A-Okay."

In other words, he's a hard-nose with a spine. He's got a clear pattern of courting controversy, or at least not skirting around it when it blocks his path of moral certitude (he said the Supreme Court was "meddling" when it chose to review the Military Commissions Act). He's not afraid to defy authority when he thinks he's right, and you've got to admire his fortitude. He's been on all the broadcast and cable news programs as a recognized expert in national security, especially security from terrorists who he thinks should be prosecuted the fair way and not via the CIA torture wheel, but he's also defended Guantanamo as a "humane" detention center (which makes him suspicious to some liberals).

He was a "risk" candidate in 2020, at a time when too many Democrats wanted "safe." But times have changed, and more Democrats are in a fighting mood and want their candidates served raw. Cory Vaillancourt points out that in 2020 Davis actually polled best in the rural counties of CD11. And the incumbent looks weakened after Hurricane Helene ravaged his district, and the Trump admin hasn't done much to bolster Edwards' popularity. Vaillancourt:

Edwards has increasingly come under scrutiny for his performance while in office, most notably in failing to acquire the $60 billion North Carolina says it needs to recover from Hurricane Helene. A bill Edwards claims he authored last December will instead deliver between $9 billion and $17 billion; however, a Smoky Mountain News investigation in March revealed that most local governments hadn’t yet received any money from the federal government six months after the storm.

In a March 13 town hall, Edwards faced fierce opposition. During his speech to delegates at the NC-11 GOP convention on April 26, Edwards touted his proximity to Trump on nearly every issue, claimed “we’re winning” and mocked Democrats.

I'm up for a Moe Davis/Chuck Edwards contest.

 

We Need More Democrats Who've Been in Battle

 

Photo Starr Sariego, Asheville Watchdog

Jay Carey, the 20+ year Army veteran who was famously thrown out of Congressman Chuck Edwards' townhall in Asheville last Friday, served in the tank corps in Desert Storm and also in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He won a bronze star for his service. In Asheville he was agitated about cuts the Trump administration has made to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He and his wife also lost their home in Hurricane Helene, think that Congressman Edwards has been less sympathetic and less helpful than a fistful of spit, so it's not a surprise that Carey’s also concerned about potential cuts to Medicare and HUD (Housing and Urban Development). 

He told the Asheville Watchdog that he has no regrets about "the expletive-laden tirade he delivered in front of a packed house at A-B Tech’s Ferguson Auditorium": “I think it was necessary. I think it was the only way to really get his attention, and it was the energy that I want to see from everyone — to stand up and to speak back to the representatives that aren’t serving us, as is their duty.”

“I do feel that the days of being cordial and respectful are over, because we’re not being respected,” Carey said. “[Congressman Edwards] is disrespecting us by doing what he’s doing to our community as a whole.”

Carey ran as a political novice in the crowded 2022 Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional District, hoping to take on punk Madison Cawthorn (who got himself knocked out of contention in the Republican primary). Carey took the photo of Cawthorn testifying at a meeting of the Henderson County School Board which revealed the partially concealed sheaf knife that Cawthorn had with him on his wheelchair. That photo caused a stir because coming armed to a school board meeting is actually unlawful.

You can see an unedited video of Carey's outburst here: https://youtube.com/shorts/Md8fDGeK2dQ?si=DxaMPrEoaRMN1Hwg. His challenge to Congressman Edwards starts about a minute in.

And incidentally, I'm not totally sold on this theory yet, but I think Edwards did a cool thing holding that town hall. He knew exactly what he was going to see and hear (in Asheville, of all places! He deliberately chose downtown Ashevagus, the liberal playground of the mountains). You can see in the video linked above the sly little Edwards smile when the crowd boos his statement that he thinks Trump respects the Constitution. He's going to use his treatment as a fundraising tool, and you've got to hand it to him that he never lost his cool. After 90 minutes, Edwards called a halt with these words: “Hey, this has been fun. I really appreciate the energy that you brought, the contradiction of opinions from time to time, the passion that I hear, the patriotism that I sense in this room.” Insincere, but classy.

And the Virginia Foxx Poor-Mouthing Oscar Goes To...

Chuck Edward and Christian Reagan

Congressman Chuck Edwards (11th CD) faced his Republican primary challenger, Christian Reagan (that's really his name), in a debate last Saturday that turned ugly. At one point, Reagan, who apparently always wears a big cowboy hat except during prayers, referred to incumbent Edwards -- “people like this, who are the elite, that represent Washington, D.C., and they come here, and they have the jargon, and they have it down. And the point is that we have to change what we do as a country. And,” gesturing toward Edwards, Reagan added, “we will never do it with people like this.”

According to reporter Tom Fiedler, who was there in Clay County, "Edwards exploded":

“I lived in mill housing; I lived in trailers and I worked my tail off all my life, just as my mother and my father did,” Edwards said, staring at Reagan.

“There is nothing ‘elite,’ ” he said, almost spitting the word out, “about this person who has asked to go to Congress to represent you because I understand how hard people in these mountains work and what it takes to live the American dream.

“I totally reject anyone who says that I am ‘elite,’ " Edwards sputtered. “My wife and I once went and found 83 cents so we could buy kerosene for our house so we could keep our house warm through the night and I could get paid the next day. That is not elite.”

Make no mistake: both Edwards and Reagan are MAGAts to the hilt (or to the crown of their hat), so there's really not a dime worth of difference between the two of them. Sorry, 11th District!

For years Virginia Foxx has deflected criticisms of her wealth, which seems to have accumulated exponentially since she took elected office, by loudly proclaiming how poor she was growing up. Poor as she was, she never learned humility or kindness, rather like the rich fast-food king from the 11th CD. 

Edwards has promised he won't be appearing alongside Christian Reagan again before the March 5 primary.

Self-Sacrifice in the 11th Congressional District

 

Caleb Rudow

Democrat Caleb Rudow, NC House member from Asheville serving his first full term in the General Assembly, has announced that he'll step down from his super-safe District 116 seat to challenge Rep. Chuck Edwards, the Republican who just last year ousted Madison Cawthorn in Congressional District 11.

Rudow grew up in Buncombe and after high school attended and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in philosophy (yes, there can be life after philosophy), because he was intending to become a rabbi. Instead, he went to the Peace Corps and served in Zambia. Building additional steam for turning his eleemosynary instincts and good heart toward public policy, Rudow did graduate work at the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs in Austin.

After House Rep. Susan Fisher announced her retirement and stepped down early at the end of 2021, Rudow made it known to Democratic activists in Asheville that he was a candidate for finishing out her term. It was an opportunity, Rudow believed, to put public service together with his best intentions for bettering the lives of people. The Democratic leaders were impressed enough with him to recommend him to Gov. Cooper, who did the appointment in February 2022. Rudow easily won election in his own right that fall.

No one -- including Rudow himself -- thinks he has anywhere approaching even odds to win the 11th Congressional District. After the most recent Republican gerrymander, it's 56% Republican. So he's sacrificing himself for the sake of keeping progressivism alive in a region with growing, vibrant, progressive cities and towns, and rural neighborhoods fuller of out-of-state transplants who think differently.

“I’ve really felt called to work in service my whole life, and this next election is a really historic moment,” Rudow said. Ever since the election of 2016, Rudow said he's been concerned with ministering to "the meanness" lose everywhere in America, not just in politics (but particularly in politics). Meanness certainly comes as a side with the sandwich that Rep. Chuck Edwards serves in Congress (he happens to be "a sandwich vendor" with a string of McDonalds) -- his attempted punishment of the Eastern Band (see below), his indifference trending toward inaction on the shutting down of the Canton paper mill -- the loss of jobs, the economic and psychological wreckage left by a predatory industry -- and his curious deafness to the humans caught in the opioid crisis. 

Edwards' meanness extends very noticeably to the media covering him, especially his animus toward the Smoky Mountain News (SMN), in particular reporter Cory Vaillancourt, who is one of the best political reporters working in the state and whose persistent questioning of Edwards Edwards hasn't much liked. He banned -- cut off -- SMN as a news source, refused to answer or even respond to any question posed by it (detailed below).

Edwards

If Chuck Edwards isn't currently the worst member of the NC delegation in Congress, he's at least a runner-up. His big legislative achievement of 2023 was the introduction of the Stop Pot Act, an attempt to punish the Eastern Band of Cherokees for voting to legalize recreational marijuana. 

Cory Vaillancourt generously gathered up the rest of Edwards' record:

During his 2022 campaign, Edwards failed to show for a debate hosted by The Smoky Mountain News [SMN] and Blue Ridge Public Radio after criticizing Cawthorn’s debate no-shows, opting instead to appear only on a corporate-owned right-leaning television network with whom he’d spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising....

In January, Edwards hired Macon County activist/journalist Brittney Lofthouse as an aide, but fired her in short order after complaints from his constituents about her support for the LGBTQ+ community.

In February, SMN informed Edwards of trouble at the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill in Canton, when one of the mill’s four machines was idled by management. Edwards refused to interview with SMN at the time. A month later, the mill announced it would shut down completely, and Edwards refused to tell SMN what, if anything, he’d done in the meantime to prevent the loss of around 1,000 good-paying union jobs.

In March, when decades of inaction by Congress to adequately fund the National Park maintenance backlog resulted in the implementation of a parking fee at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Edwards refused to interview with SMN about what, if anything, he’d done to prevent the cost from being passed on to visitors.

In April, when the “Back off Our Benefits” tour rolled into Asheville and asked Edwards to pledge to protect Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and veterans’ benefits, Edwards ignored them, just as he’d done the previous October.

At a town hall focusing on the impact of the Canton mill closing in June, Edwards again refused to answer questions posed by SMN about what, if anything, he’d done to save the mill after being informed of the situation by SMN a month before the closing was announced. Instead, Edwards responded by saying he’d only speak with media outlets that give him favorable coverage.

“I really reserve the right to respond to those media outlets that I’ve been able to build good relationships with that have reported the news fairly,” Edwards said at the time, without citing any examples of unfair reporting. “I didn’t respond to that question and I’m not gonna respond to this.”

At that same meeting, Edwards heard criticism from constituents when, in response to a question about how Buncombe County could help with the impact of the mill’s closing, Edwards ridiculed Asheville’s problems and refused help....

In September, Edwards threatened to withhold federal highway funding from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a sovereign tribal government, after voters there decided to legalize the recreational use of cannabis. Some, including SMN, decried Edwards’ meddling in tribal affairs. Also in September, Edwards sent a field representative to Murphy to present an award to a fringe law enforcement group that has ties to white supremacy, espouses COVID-19 conspiracy theories, embraces election denialism and advocates the thoroughly debunked “sovereign sheriff” movement....

 

Congressman Chuck Edwards Goes Jihad About Investigative Reporter

 

Chuck Edwards

Newly elected Congressman Chuck Edwards, who took over the 11th CD seat from Madison Cawthorn, has thrown a hissy fit about Smoky Mountain News investigative reporter Cory Vaillancourt and banned him from his office:

My office makes every effort to respond to media inquiries of reporters with a willingness to report news in a balanced manner and without bias.

@SMN_Cory

is no such reporter. My office will not waste our time with his inquires [sic]. Readers have many other options. Please use them.

That was at 3:45 p.m. on March 19, following ten days of massive upset in the heart of Edwards' district over the announced closing of the huge Canton paper mill (formerly Champion Paper, now Pactiv Evergreen), which is putting hundreds out of work and endangering the economic health of all of Haywood County. Vaillancourt fired back at Edwards on Twitter, and the whole backstory began to take shape. At 4:38 p.m. on the 19th, Vaillancourt tweeted:

Some things I’ve reported about @ChuckEdwards4NC (a thread):

- Pulled out of a legitimate debate in favor of a taped TV softball-fest with a corporate TV station he’d spent hundred$ of thousand$ with

- opposed student debit relief, never paid back his own $1m PPP loan

- refused to interview when mill closing broke

- attributed my reporting about stock trades to aforementioned friendly TV station

Where’s the bias, Chuck?

- voted himself a tax break on said PPP loan - didn’t even know own party leader’s positions on Medicare, SS cuts - couldn’t find 10 minutes over 5 days to talk about mill troubles in Feb

i contacted you prior to Feb. 8 about troubles at the mill. you didn't even know what was happening & refused to speak on it — probably because you knew nothing & had done nothing. when canton's working families needed you most, you did nothing. shame on you.

 

That "shame on you" might be considered unprofessional for a reporter, but it was certainly human, and it came after Edwards had announced that Vaillancourt was persona non grata in his office, so not only "human" but understandably human.

In my limited experience, I have to rank Vaillancourt at the top of reporters I've followed in western North Carolina.

The Screw-You Philosophy of Trump Republicanism

 

Don't get between a Republican politician and his greed.

The greed for money. The greed for power. They'll run over you for either. They're Virginia Foxx driving a car too fast on mountain roads and tailgating granny to get to her next fundraiser or a vote on denying anybody anywhere any government assistance of any kind. It's their big car and it's their road, so get the hell outta the way!

They're Madison Cawthorn assuming the laws don't apply to them, the rules of the road or the rules about taking weapons onto school grounds.

They're clones now of Trump, of course, who turned his Secret Service detail into a cash machine and would stop at nothing to maintain power. What was he doing with stolen secrets? If the thought -- let alone some overt action -- of turning those docs into cash didn't cross his adderolated brain, I'd be astounded.

Chuck Edwards

Then there's the particular screw-you attitude of Chuck Edwards, the Republican who beat Cawthorn in the primary and is now trying to replace him in Congress, running against Jasmine Beach-Ferrera. Edwards was outraged, in that pinched-face way of MAGA Republicans, when Prez Biden forgave a measly amount of student debt:

“This policy is unfair to the millions of Americans who have paid back their debt and to the taxpayers who will now pay the debts of those who haven’t,” Edwards told the Smoky Mountain News. “And it will make inflation even worse. It has to stop and when I am in Congress, I will fight to restore fiscal sanity to our nation.”

Unfair.

The cry of the greed-head who's been sucking off the teat and is outraged that someone else might get a drop.

Because Edwards himself has had over a million dollars in Payment Protection Program loans (PPP) -- $1,120,000.00, to be absolutely exact -- forgiven by the Federal government. And now he wants to make sure that those ex-students burdened with predatory interest on their student loans have to actually pay state income taxes on those $10,000 of forgiven debt.

That's the screw-you philosophy without any clothes on.

Kevin McCarthy Has Had Enough of Madison Cawthorn

 

Implicating fellow Republican Congesspersons as sex-orgy-attending deviants is the line you apparently don't cross in Washington, and Madison Cawthorn crossed it. So Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy ordered Cawthorn into his office for an official paddling. And Cawthorn showed up. The photo of his leaving McCarthy's office yesterday suggests to some observers that the 26-year-old had been crying.

The backlash [against Cawthorn had been] remarkably swift. There was even talk about kicking Cawthorn out of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Multiple members suggested publicly that a reprimand and an apology would be insufficient, and that Cawthorn needed to get specific if he was going to tell salacious tales.

“You should have to name names if you are going to go make those kinds of brushstroke accusations and impugn the character of people in this institution or … anybody else in this town,” an anonymous Republican told Politico. (Aaron Blake, reporting in the WashPost)

Sounding like the scourge of God Himself, Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said, “He’ll need to be careful, because eventually he’ll be judged.”

Womack even alluded to wanting Cawthorn out, as in out of office: “If it’s: ‘Hey, don’t do that, again,’ we’ve been there. Frankly, if western North Carolina is not going to fix the problem, then leadership will have to.”

If western North Carolina is not going to fix the problem ... like, in the upcoming May 17th Republican primary, where Republican state lawmaker and primary challenger Chuck Edwards (only one of many in the primary) has earned himself the endorsement of both Phil Berger and Tim Moore (who are headlining a fundraiser for Edwards), along with Sen. Thom Tillis's endorsement. If Republicans coalesce around a single challenger in the 11th CD, they can indeed "fix the problem" of Madison Cawthorn (an outcome I've never much believed could happen but which is looking more likely).

Another Republican Declares for the CD14 Seat

 

This was the headline in the Asheville Citizen-Times after state Sen. Chuck Edwards announced his candidacy for the CD14 Congressional seat:

Edwards, GOP critic of Madison Cawthorn's Jan. 6 actions, to run for former Cawthorn seat

And the lede for reporter Joel Burgess's article:

HENDERSONVILLE — Republican state Sen. Chuck Edwards, an outspoken critic of right-wing Rep. Madison Cawthorn "inflaming" Americans against each other before the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol invasion, said he is running for Cawthorn's former seat.

There had been some speculation before Congressman Cawthorn jumped ship to run in the adjacent 13th CD that Sen. Edwards would challenge Cawthorn in the primary, so public had his criticisms of Cawthorn become.

Edwards owns seven McDonald's franchises, so he knows how to push big calories at country people. So of course he mentioned growing up in the mountains "carrying a squirrel gun."

Republican Dominoes, in Real Time

 

Former Republican state party chair and news reporter for the Carolina Journal, Dallas Woodhouse -- whose sources inside NC conservative circles must be legion -- broke the news that Congressman Madison Cawthorn was thinking of running in the adjacent 13th District rather than in his own 14th. Cawthorn said it would make North Carolina more conservative. He also said that Donald Trump fully supports the idea. He's talking it over with his wife this weekend and will get back to us on Monday. (My own confidence in this rumor is pretty much nil, but it's a welcome diversion on a Thursday.)

If that actually happened, O! O! O! the dominoes would begin falling. The 13th CD -- by all accounts -- was carved out explicitly to enable NC House Speaker Tim Moore to move his mahogany butt from Raleigh to DeeCee and to have a safe seat thereafter for as long as the grass is green or as long as it takes the rainmaker Moore to become sufficiently richer. He's not happy about Cawthorn's prospecting on his stake. And I bet he's on the phone right now.

Side note: Didn't know this. North Carolina needs to be more conservative, and Donald Trump agrees that Tim Moore needs to be eliminated. Interesting. I wouldn't think Trump would have a clue who Tim Moore is.

'Nother side note: If you're into state politics, what would be greater entertainment than Tim Moore's having Madison Cawthorn as a primary opponent? Two grifters -- of greatly differing ages and understanding -- enter. One grifter leaves.

Here's the new map: 

The other dominoes: If Cawthorn left the 14th open, three more Republican wannabes (Ralph Hise, Deanna Ballard, and Chuck Edwards) would also reportedly be making a decision about getting into the Republican primary (which already has three announced candidates -- see below). I first saw those new names on Dallas Woodhouse's Twitter. 

Edwards, like Ballard and Hise, is currently an NC state senator. His senate district 48 includes the heart of the new 14th -- Buncombe and Henderson counties. Edwards was appointed late in 2016 to replace the retiring Tom Apodaca, then won on his own in November 2016, ran for reelection in 2018 and got 56% of the vote, won again last year with almost 59%. He seems like a contender. Maybe stronger than Ralph Hise. Indubitably stronger than Deanna Ballard.

We have to leave for a later episode why Hise, head of the NC Senate redistricting committee, drew himself and Deanna Ballard into the same NC Senate district. Double-bunking of incumbents is usually received as a slap in the face ("someone wants to get rid of me"), is never welcome. Perhaps Hise and/or Ballard already had plans for a change in career, so maybe it's no biggie.

 

The 3 Republicans Already in the Race

Wendy Nevarez, ex-military and a moderate.

Bruce O'Connell, who came out with a boilerplate conservative "Contract" with the voters, making him look old and uninspiring. He runs the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Rod Honeycutt, also as dull as yesterday morning's dishwater, but he has been the most direct in attacking Cawthorn: "I will not watch from the sidelines as inexperienced, self-promoting characters seek to further careers while the hard-working men and women of WNC suffer the consequences" (quoted on WataugaWatch).

Buncombe County Commissioner Has Entered the Democratic Primary To Challenge Madison Cawthorn

 

Take a look at this, the announcement video of Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, just released this morning:

“I’m running because Western North Carolina families deserve better than they’re getting from Madison Cawthorn. My faith teaches me that leadership starts with empathy, compassion, and listening and then getting to work to help people. That’s the kind of leadership I want to offer instead of the division and mean-spiritedness we’re getting now,” said Beach-Ferrara. “This is going to be a campaign built on bringing people together, finding common ground, organizing everywhere and talking about the issues that actually matter to people’s lives.”

"Some people will say a gay woman who's a Christian minister just can't get elected in the South. Not to mention, she's a Democrat. When I say an insurrectionist who flirts with Nazis, fires up a violent crowd to attack our democracy, well he shouldn't get reelected anywhere," Beach-Ferrara said in the campaign video.

According to Kristy Kepley-Steward, "As a commissioner, Beach-Ferrara has a reputation as being a pragmatic problem-solver who knows how to bring people together to deliver results for working families, working to bridge the commission’s partisan divide to help expand access to early childhood education, tackle the opioid epidemic and keep people safe during the pandemic." The Smoky Mountain News prints additional background on Beach-Ferrara.

Beach-Ferrara will likely face a lively Democratic primary next spring for the privilege of taking on Cawthorn. Col. Moe Davis, who ran a pugnacious race against Cawthorn last fall, raised substantial campaign cash, but lost to Cawthorn by 12 points, filed a statement of candidacy on Feb. 22 but has a statement on his website saying he’s still “exploring” the idea of running again.

Henderson County businessman and Iraq War veteran Josh Remillard has also filed FEC paper to organize a campaign. Remillard was on the 2020 ballot for the 117th House District against a resurrected Tim Moffitt, but Remillard lost by 21 points. According to the Smoky Mountain News, another potential Democratic candidate, Jay Carey, is also exploring a run, "and it's likely he's not the last."

According to Cory Vaillancourt, Cawthorn may have his own Republican primary next spring with "powerful Hendersonville Republican" Chuck Edwards, who was just reelected to the NC Senate from Dist. 48. Apparently, Cawthorn's stepped on his own weenie a few times too many for an establishment Republican like Chuck Edwards.

The Elections of March: Democratic Primary in NCS48

Until March, we'll be focusing our attention on coming primaries that might signal strong Democratic contenders who could conceivably flip Republican districts next November. NC Senate District 48 includes eastern Buncombe County (but not Asheville) and all of Henderson and Transylvania counties -- discouraging ground for a Democratic insurgent. This was the district occupied for many terms by Republican iron first Tom Apodaca before he retired in 2016.

In March, former Democratic House member and former chair of the NC Democratic Party Patsy Keever announced that she would be running for the District 48 Senate seat in 2020. Keever's well known in western NC and might have been the instant frontrunner for the nomination, but she was actually late to announce her candidacy. Democrat Brian Caskey was already in the race. He had announced his intention to run all the way back in February. Then another court-ordered redistricting dealt Keever a fatal blow. The most recent remapping of NC House and Senate districts drew Keever out of the 48th, leaving the field to Caskey. But he's now been joined by two other Democratic hopefuls who are competing with him for the nomination.

Brian Caskey

Caskey is a 48-year-old Gen-X-er (born in 1971) and a town council member (the first Democrat ever!) for the little town of Mills River in Henderson County. He and his wife Stacey own Biltmore Tutoring which employs professionals to "help many students improve grades, achieve higher SAT and ACT scores, and earn admissions (and scholarships) to prestigious colleges throughout the world." As a Mills River councilman, Caskey has been particularly active with environmental enhancements, supporting the establishment of walking trails and greenways and the restoration of streams. He has also served on the Henderson County Transportation Advisory Committee, the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, and the Carolina Veterans Coalition.

From all appearances, Caskey is running an energetic and effective campaign and is probably the frontrunner in the primary. He has a website, a Facebook page, and a very active Twitter account.


Najah Underwood

Najah Underwood is a 23-year-old millennial idealist ("The Voice for the Voiceless") born in 1996. She has an under-developed website (which includes no information about her background, her education, her working life) and a Facebook page. She thinks inspirationally about "uplifting" her community but seems pretty unprepared for a political campaign.







Cristal Figueroa

Figueroa is a 25-year-old millennial born in 1994. She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, a 2018 graduate of UNC-Asheville, and she says she is currently working three different jobs -- as a legal aid to an immigration attorney, as a registered behavior technician who works with children with learning disabilities, and in retail. She's also driven by idealism and a fierce determination to be heard: "Cristal, like so many of us, has been told that she doesn’t deserve a seat at the table. Well, she’s decided to build her own. Pull up a chair and join her."

In addition to her website, Figueroa has a Facebook page and a Twitter account.


The Republican Incumbent -- Chuck Edwards

Edwards was appointed to the Senate seat in 2016 upon Tom Apodaca's retirement and subsequently ran that same year in his first successful election. He was easily reelected in 2018. He's a 59-year-old boomer (born in 1960). He owns a string of McDonald's franchises and is otherwise a standard-issue western North Carolina conservative Republican.

District 48 remains a "Lean Republican" seat.