Despite strong opposition last year, Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) has again filed a bill that if passed would bring partisanship into some of Western North Carolina’s municipal governments.

Western North Carolina voters — and legislators — often complain about the feeling of being ignored by Raleigh, but as the new session begins, Macon County’s Republican delegation is brandishing some serious clout.

Incumbent Republican Sen. Kevin Corbin, of Macon County, will go on to serve another two years in North Carolina’s General Assembly after securing yet another electoral victory in his long history of public service.

North Carolina’s 50th Senate District remains a bastion of Republican power in the west; nonpartisan mapping site davesredistricting.org puts it at more than 62% red, utilizing a composite of actual vote counts from 2016 through 2020, rather than simple voter registration totals.

A Canton woman has filed a lawsuit against the Hospital Corporation of America in which she claims “egregious acts of medical and corporate negligence” during the birth of her son led to his suffering a permanent hypoxic brain injury that will allegedly leave him to deal with cerebral palsy and “associated delays and disabilities” for the rest of his life.

The latest round of state grants for broadband infrastructure have landed, and represent a big win for six Western North Carolina counties that have been left on the wrong side of the digital divide.

More than a hundred economic development professionals, elected officials, internet service providers and interested parties from across North Carolina’s seven westernmost counties met March 21 in Franklin to acquaint themselves with the ways in which unprecedented amounts of state and federal broadband monies will be used to close the digital divide in rural Appalachia.

Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Franklin) and Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) secured critical improvements for Haywood County in the compromise state budget approved by the state Senate on Nov. 17 and the state House on Nov. 18.  

Saying that he feels he can “offer more to the citizens of Western North Carolina as a senator than as a freshman congressman,” Franklin Republican Kevin Corbin has removed himself from the milieu of Republicans supposedly seeking the 14th Congressional District seat. 

Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s decision to leave his 14th Congressional District seat open has already produced a “ripple effect” of electoral implications across the region, but now that the big splash is over, there’s at least one Western North Carolina Republican thinking about dipping his toes into the water.