New Hope in Transylvania County

 

My friend Deda Edney in Transylvania County sent me this video featuring seven Democratic candidates running for school board and county commission there -- an unusual approach, as some local candidates resist running as a unified group, a partisan team, but in this Transylvania instance, it's a positive presentation for community building and solidarity.

I've watched the Democrats in Transylvania for years now and feel their pain. Deda's husband Sam Edney ran a great but losing race for House Dist. 113 in both 2018 and 2020. He's now the party chair in Transylvania, and he's not given up rallying Democrats and carrying the flag for progressive change. This year's team of local candidates proves it. Deda and Sam are the type of local leaders that state party Chair Anderson Clayton has called for in every corner of rural North Carolina.

Two years ago, Transylvania elected to its school board a trigger-happy Christian nationalist and a Moms-for-Liberty-adjacent woman. The defeat of reasonable Democratic candidates would depress the energies of any activist, as Deda wrote after the 2022 losses, but the Democrats of Transylvania didn't stop, didn't give up, kept recruiting good people to put their names on the ballot under the banner of Democrat. These folks represent the best of hope, endurance, and a vision for the future that doesn't include hurting other people.

If the Blue Wave Rolls Bigly, Brian Caskey Could Bring an Upset in SD48

Prognosticators consider North Carolina Senate District 48 as "Safe Republican" (although Bitzer rated it only "Lean Republican" at some point late last fall -- I have the print-out but don't ask me for the URL). Trump took 59.36 percent of the district vote in 2016. That's enough to sober anybody up -- ice water to one's tenderest aspirations. But Democrat Brian Caskey has been making a campaign there, and anyone should have seen it coming. 

I followed the rise of Caskey starting on December 31, 2019, shortly after the close of candidate filing. He was the frontrunner then, I thought, and has never stopped. He won the Democratic primary in March. In July, he called out Republican incumbent Chuck Edwards for being in Duke Energy's pocket. A scrapper, and that's what it will take to upset this incumbent. If anything, Caskey should do more of that hell-raising with Edwards' record.

The mathematical question: Does Democratic/Independent enthusiasm for voting (i.e., disgust with Trump) equal a 5 percent bump for Caskey? And does a downward trending enthusiasm gap among mountain Republicans equal another 5 percent advantage for Caskey? (Political observers whose roots run deep in the mountains say things aren't so keen for many Republican voters. There's a palpable sense of exhaustion.) Together, Democratic enthusiasm and Republican depression could wipe out Trump's 10 percent advantage from 2016. Is it possible? Hell, in a year when the very bedrock of our Republic, the Post Office, is threatened, I'll believe almost anything is possible

There's another factor impacting on Caskey's chances to flip this Senate district: SD48 overlaps with HD113 and HD117 where Democratic candidates have been mounting energetic campaigns -- Sam Edney in the 113th and Josh Remillard in the 117th. Edney especially is rallying the troops. Edney, Remillard, and Kim Bost over in the 96th District (Catawba County) have teamed up for their own "Breaking the Majority" campaign. The energy is noticeable for mobilizing "sometime" voters, new voters, independent voters (who hold the balance of power), and with Caskey assaulting the Senate, there's every promise of culmulative force applied against The Matrix.

Un-Trumping North Carolina: Democrat Sam Edney Running in NC House Dist. 113

NC House District 113 stretches along the South Carolina border through Polk, the southern half of Henderson, and Transylvania counties. It's considered "Safe Republican" (groan). Some 23% of voters are registered Democrats; 36% are registered Republicans (ack!); but 41%, a plurality, are registered Unaffiliated. Is that a crack of light in the gloom? And consider this political tremor from back last December: three Transylvania county commissioners left the Republican Party en masse and registered Unaffiliated as an expression of disgust with the direction of their party.

Democrat Sam Edney, a former school board member in Transylvania County, ran for the District 113 seat in 2018, got 42.48% of the vote against a young Republican whippersnapper named Cody Henson, who had anger issues and who ended up resigning the seat after pleading guilty to cyberstalking his wife. The Republican executive committees from the three counties in the 113th District appointed another young Republican whippersnapper, Jake Johnson, to finish Cody Henson's term, and Sam Edney is back, more energetic and more determined than ever to take a seat in Raleigh that few think can be taken. Smugness and complacency on Jake Johnson's part might be a huge mistake.

Edney has been actively running since midway through 2019, and he shows every mark of a candidate who learned from a previous loss. He's worked to expand his volunteer base (though "boots on the ground" have now become "voices on the phone" in the Age of Covid). Plus he "fits" his district well. He's one of the common folk, came up via hard knocks from what he himself calls "a dirt poor" childhood in Henderson County: “I know what it means not to have food in the house. By working hard, I made a success. But I had lots of help along the way. When people helped me, I didn’t care what their politics were. And when I helped others, their political leanings didn’t matter to me.”

Our refusal to expand Medicaid hurts working people. It hurts working moms. It hurts those with substance abuse issues who have lost their children. We cannot continue letting our money go to other states. #ExpandMedicaidNow

4:19 PM · Jun 10, 2020

Incumbent Jake Johnson

I have a deep soft spot in my heart for Sam Edney, not only because he's an avid gardener with holes in the knees of his pants. He's running what some people think is an impossible race against harsh odds, and he's got a powerful ally at his side in his wife Deda. I've spoken to both on them on the phone and offered them unsolicited advice from the perspective of someone who's fought seemingly impossible odds but in a very different context. I've donated to Sam's campaign and want to see him win. If the mass defection from the Republican Party of three Transylvania county commissioners is any sign of tectonic forces shifting their weight, then this is the year for impossible possibilities in House District 113.

Another Two Democrats Running for the NC House

Kandie Smith, running for NC House District 8

District 8 = Pitt County, which means the city of Greenville and the campus of East Carolina State University. The General Assembly was forced to redraw the district which had contained parts of both Pitt and Wilson counties but which cut out the urban core of those two counties.

Open seat. Republican incumbent Susan Martin announced last November that she was giving up the seat, and so far no Republican has stepped forward to take up the challenge.

Kandie Smith

Democrat Kandie Smith is an 8-year veteran Greenville city councilwoman, first elected in 2007. Last July, Smith — who was also serving as the city’s mayor pro tem — became the first black female mayor of Greenville after the city council voted unanimously to appoint her to fill the mayor’s seat left vacant by Allen Thomas. Smith also is the North Carolina assistant regional representative for the National Black Caucus of Elected Officials, a board member of the Pitt County Re-entry Council, and was the former president of the Greenville Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She said, “During my time as mayor I had the opportunity to see things differently and had a lot more contact with our representatives in Raleigh. It made me realize how much more I can do in the General Assembly. I have always fought for the citizens of Greenville. I want to continue that fight for all of eastern North Carolina.” One of her top priorities will be the economic development of the region. “Eastern North Carolina gets overlooked a lot,” she said. “We are often an afterthought … but we have so much to offer, and I want to go to Raleigh and make sure people know that.” She ran in the Democratic primary in NC House District 24 in 2016 and lost to the incumbent, Jean Farmer-Butterfield.

Sam Edney, running for the NC House District 113

District 113 is a mountain district, taking in Brevard, Hendersonville, and Saluda.

Incumbent Republican: Cody Henson is in his first term in the NC House. He's a baby -- 26 years old -- and probably the youngest member of the House. He is married and the father of a young son. He currently works at OceanX, an Arden-based company that helps businesses create subscription programs. He thought HB2 was perfectly fine, and he told the Carolina Public Press: "I am a Christian conservative." We believe him.

Sam Edney

Democrat Sam Edney has been actively campaigning for this seat since last summer. After graduating from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in 1970, Edney worked as an industrial engineer for 18 years, the last 12 with Ecusta Paper in Brevard. In 1988, he purchased Pisgah Pest Control, a company that today has three branches and 24 employees. He served on the Transylvania County Board of Education. Currently, he is Vice Chair of the SAFE Board of Directors. Economic development in the mountains is a key issue for him: “It’s time to respond to the 15-25 percent decline in well-paying jobs in the three counties I will serve. The way to do that is to invest in public education and economic development. I believe everyone in our community should have a chance to succeed.”