Voters in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District have endured years of disaster and instability, just as national trends are shifting hard against Republicans. Democrats believe this is their best chance in years to flip the gerrymandered seat currently held by Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson). Five candidates are asking for that chance. 

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.

To the Editor:

I recently sent this letter to North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein.

I fear that the current deployment of ICE, CBP, a federalized National Guard, the FBI and the DEA is actually practice for the Trump administration’s seizure of voting machines in historically Democrat voting areas in the 2026 General Election.

The most powerful person in any North Carolina county is the sheriff, an elected position mandated by the state constitution. 

County elections determine who will don the badge and serve the four-year term in office. Such a system ostensibly ensures sheriffs are accountable to voters, but a 2024 Ballotpedia analysis of all United States’ elections excluding the presidency found that 7 8% of law enforcement races had only one candidate. 

The Republican primary in House District 119 — Jackson, Swain and Transylvania counties — now unfolds against a backdrop of unresolved disaster recovery and rising voter frustration with a legislature that has struggled to deliver a state budget but still found time to strip powers from incoming Democrats and gerrymander another Republican congressional seat at the behest of President Donald Trump. 

Despite an ever-changing cast of characters cycling through like a revolving door, the Haywood County Tax Collector’s office has come a long way since Maggie Valley Republican Mike Matthews defeated Democratic incumbent David Francis in 2014 by 1.26%. Now, after nearly four years of service, Republican incumbent Sebastian Cothran has decided to seek other opportunities, guaranteeing a fourth change in leadership over the past four elections. 

To the Editor:

The “Pisgah Legal’s bind” article in the December 17 issue of your paper was very informative. Once again we can thank the Republicans in office for harming their constituents. Our representatives in Raleigh (and Washington) seem to be ignorant and insensitive. 

To the Editor:

Partisan actions to create electoral advantages have likely always been rampant for both factions in the U.S. The fact that social media permits virtually instant communication to huge populations has added to the perception that such manipulations are much worse now than in the past.