A new coalition of North Carolina parents is taking aim at Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, alleging his past leadership decisions placed children at risk and demanding accountability ahead of the November election. 

The group, calling itself Parents Against Whatley, launched this week with more than 60 members spanning 19 counties. Organizers say the coalition includes a mix of party affiliations, with more than one-quarter identifying as unaffiliated voters. 

More than 18 months after Hurricane Helene carved a path of destruction across Western North Carolina, the numbers meant to measure recovery have become a political battleground — one where claims made by Helene recovery czar and Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley are increasingly at odds with the state’s own data. 

To the Editor:

Why should Haywood County young adults consider joining and participating with the Mountain View Young Republicans? The reasons are many, but here are just a few reasons:

• The Mountain View Young Republicans will offer resources to enhance young adults’ political understanding and awareness of current issues. 

To the Editor:

Republicans are fiscally responsible. They lower taxes on working folks and make things less expensive. Republicans make our country safer. They care about the common folk. They run things like a business.

Right? Let’s look at our current situation. 

Two counties hit hard by Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina will soon have a new representative in the General Assembly, after Republican Primary Election voters backed a challenger who won by nearly 10 points. 

Haywood and Madison counties comprise the 118th House District and together tallied more than $200 million in losses from the Sept. 27, 2024, storm, which caused $60 billion in damage statewide. 

To the Editor:

Recently, President Trump said, “I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat,” at the National Prayer Breakfast. This may surely make the Top 10 of his ridiculous statements. Likewise, if anyone stated they didn’t know how a person of faith could vote for a Republican or Independent, they too would be equally ridiculous. I must add that such an unbelievable statement coming from a sitting president is far from the expectation we should have for one in the highest office of the land. 

Many counties around Western North Carolina are working to address a host of similar issues — rapidly growing populations, a housing stock that can’t keep up, aging infrastructure and struggles filling staffing vacancies. Macon County boasts the second-lowest property tax rate in the state, but with capital projects on the horizon and pay raises demanded for several county departments, tough choices will need to be made by whoever is elected to the board in November. 

Over the past decade or more, Western North Carolina Republicans have proven that the only candidates that can beat incumbent Republican congressmen are other Republicans. Adam Smith talks like someone who has already settled on that outcome and is now working backward to make it inevitable. 

“What conservative voters in the United States want to see is Republicans have the intestinal fortitude to do what they said they were going to do,” Smith said. 

Few Primary races across the region have drawn the attention that the contest for Haywood County Sheriff has seen. 

Squaring off for the position in the Republican Primary are incumbent Sheriff Bill Wilke, who has made reform a cornerstone of his first term in office, and Mark Mease, a former HCSO captain who promises to bring back a level of integrity and professionalism he said has been absent the last three-plus years. 

Following his first four years as Macon County’s sheriff, Brent Holbrooks is facing a primary challenge as he seeks a second term. 

Following former Sheriff Robbie Holland’s announcement that he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2022, Holbrooks emerged from a crowded Republican primary field that included multiple candidates who worked in high-level positions in Holland’s office.