Woodhouse, a Detroit native with roots in Jackson and Macon counties, won the district election held at Tuscola High School in Waynesville on Dec. 9 by a wide margin and will serve a two-year term. She was first elected in April 2021, but left to run for Western North Carolina’s congressional seat when then-congressman Madison Cawthorn (R-Henderson) announced he would run for Congress in 2022 in a newly-drawn district.

Courts, however, struck down that map, leaving Cawthorn little choice but to run in the district that originally elected him. Cawthorn, along with Woodhouse and several others, lost in the 2022 Republican Primary Election to then-Sen. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson), who went on to earn his first term in the House by defeating Buncombe County Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara in November 2022. Woodhouse secured the nomination with endorsements from chairs of the district’s largest counties — Buncombe, Haywood and Henderson.

Elected alongside Woodhouse were Reagan Bunch (vice chair) of Clay County, Patrick Ward (second vice chair) of Madison County, Wally Booth (treasurer) of Transylvania County and Hunter Clark (secretary) of McDowell County.

— Cory Vaillancourt, Politics Editor