Corbin captures easy N.C. House win

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Corbin captures easy N.C. House win

Kevin Corbin, R-Franklin, will trade in his seat on the Macon County Board of Commissioners for a place in the N.C House of Representatives following a decisive win over the Democratic candidate Randy Hogsed, of Andrews.

Corbin took home 72.1 percent of the vote compared to Hogsed’s 28, winning at least 70.2 percent of the vote in all four of the district’s counties and pulling in the biggest margin of victory on his home turf in Macon County, where he won 73.5 percent of the vote. In his home county, Cherokee County, Hogsed won only 28.8 percent of the vote. Overall, Corbin earned 28,783 votes compared to Hogsed’s 11,163.

Corbin attributed his success to both the track record of the Macon County Board of Commissioners he has led as chairman for the past four years and to the tireless campaigning of the dedicated team spreading his message in outlying counties.

“I’m very happy with the results,” Corbin said. “I appreciate folks’ confidence in me, and our campaign was very specific about where we sit on certain issues — it was very clear the way we were going to serve, so we plan to take that to Raleigh.”

Corbin’s term will come on the heels of the 17 years that Roger West, R-Marble, served as District 120 representative. As he prepared to retire, West personally asked Corbin to consider running. Corbin’s experience in local politics is extensive, including 20 years on the Macon County Board of Education and six years on the Macon County Board of Commissioners. By contrast, Hogsed’s only political experience was a term on the Andrews town council.

During the campaign, Corbin had billed himself as an experienced leader with the connections and know-how to get things done on behalf of the far western counties, whereas Hogsed had stressed his status as an unbeholden outsider excited to represent all people, regardless of party.

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Critical philosophical differences between the two candidates included taxation, school choice and voter ID. Corbin is a proponent of the flat tax, charter school, school vouchers and voter ID, whereas Hogsed favors a progressive tax system, tax dollars that go to traditional public schools only and repeal of the voter ID law.

Upon his arrival in Raleigh, Corbin plans to get to work on a plan that would secure a better funding mechanism for rural schools and to make progress toward his goal of bringing high-speed internet to “every road and hollow in our mountains.”

Hogsed was not immediately available for comment on election night, though in an email exchange last week attempting to set up a post-election interview he told The Smoky Mountain News, “I will be out of town. Going to Mexico to hide out.”