Pless positions himself as steady hand amid slow recovery
Defined by disaster, the tenure of Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) includes the Coronavirus pandemic, Tropical Storm Fred, the closing of the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill in Canton and Hurricane Helene.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
Under a mountainside that had slipped again and again, residents of Thistle Ridge faced a grim reality — unstable ground, blocked roads and no clear path forward.
For more than four years, bureaucratic delays and shifting priorities left a vital infrastructure fix stalled while families worried their homes could be lost and emergency access cut off. Then, Rep. Mark Pless took up their cause.
After repeated visits to state transportation offices and persistent work to secure funding, construction finally moved forward and crews stabilized the slope above Big Branch Road, a small but tangible sign that steadfast advocacy can still move stalled projects.
“Mark is the one that got us some hope,” resident Connie Scanlon said.
That story has played out repeatedly across Western North Carolina, where recovery has been measured in years rather than months. Tropical Storm Fred in 2021 carved away roads, bridges and creek banks, overwhelming local budgets and leaving counties dependent on slow-moving reimbursement systems.
Just as some projects finally began to break ground, Hurricane Helene brought fresh destruction, compounding delays and forcing communities back into emergency mode. Housing shortages remain acute, construction costs have surged and local governments continue to juggle basic services against mounting infrastructure needs.
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In Haywood and Madison counties, the financial strain has been relentless.
Federal aid arrives incrementally and often requires detailed documentation that smaller governments struggle to assemble quickly. Aging water and sewer systems demand upgrades that would be difficult to finance even without disasters.
In that environment, access to state decision-makers — and the persistence to keep calling after the first rejection — has become as important as policy positions.
Pless has built his political identity around that role.
A Haywood County native, Pless entered public service long before holding elected office, spending nearly 30 years as a volunteer firefighter with Center Pigeon and more than two decades working in emergency medical services. He earned his paramedic certification in 1993 and later worked as an insurance agent, experience he says shaped his understanding of what disaster survivors face once emergency crews leave and claims are denied.
That background informed his decision to run for the Haywood County Board of Commissioners in 2018, where he served two years before winning election to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 2020. Now in his third term and seeking a fourth, Pless serves on budget and appropriations committees that oversee transportation and infrastructure funding.
He is also the chair of the emergency management and disaster recovery committee, and the vice chair of the House’s select committee on Helene recovery — important roles in one of the state’s hardest-hit House districts.
His campaign centers one claim above all others, namely that his seniority and committee assignments have translated into money flowing back to a region repeatedly hit by forces beyond local control.
He distinguishes between money formally appropriated and funds made accessible through eligibility changes or agency action, arguing that both matter when communities are trying to rebuild.
“All told, there’s a little over $348 million if you count all of my counties,” he said, noting that Yancey County was part of the 118th District before the maps were redrawn by the General Assembly.
Pless had only been in office for eight months when Fred carved a swath of destruction through the eastern reaches of Haywood County, making it all the more remarkable he was able to procure funding.
“When you get [to the General Assembly], you have limited freedom,” he said. “You don’t have access to the people that you need to talk to because you are a freshman.”
Those figures include funding tied to flood mitigation, road stabilization, emergency operations facilities and wastewater infrastructure, as well as economic relief following the closure of Canton’s paper mill — a blow that stripped the town of jobs and tax base almost overnight.
Pless’ advocacy for Canton, along with that of Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Macon), is directly tied to the town’s recovery from three major disasters in four years; he points to state funding that helped stabilize municipal finances and maintain school and community college operations.
Behind those numbers, he says, is constant pressure applied in unglamorous ways — meetings with financial experts, repeated agency calls and negotiations that sometimes stretch across multiple legislative sessions.
“Everybody thinks it just falls off of a tree,” Pless said of the nine-figure appropriations he’s secured for his district. “It doesn’t. You work, you go to offices, you talk to the budget writers, you find out how far you can go.”
Critics counter that Pless’ aggressive style has also generated friction, particularly with municipal leaders.
Over the past several years, Pless has clashed with towns over extra-territorial jurisdiction, backing legislation that limited the ability of municipalities to regulate development beyond their borders without consent. Local officials argued the changes undercut long-term planning. Pless responded that residents living just outside town limits were being governed without meaningful representation.
“When people come to me, my job is to address their grievances,” Pless said. “So if they come to me and they tell me, like with the ETJ, ‘I’m having to answer to somebody, and I have no voice in their vote,’ that’s a problem.”
He has also supported changes that would allow for partisan municipal elections, a move that drew criticism from town leaders who said it would import state-level polarization into local government. Pless has framed that position as a transparency issue rather than a partisan one.
In December 2024, Pless drew headlines after telling Haywood County Commissioner Terry Ramey to “step down” after Ramey helped spread misinformation about post-Helene short-term housing in a YouTube video that earned Ramey’s fellow commissioners death threats. That moment — a surprise appearance at a Haywood County commission meeting — reinforced his reputation for bluntness and willingness to confront local officials publicly when necessary.
Pless does not shy away from those conflicts. He argues that friction is inevitable when state and local interests collide and that his responsibility is to the residents who contact his office seeking help.
“They don’t understand the entire situation, and they’re not living that situation,” he said of critics.
Looking ahead, Pless says his focus remains squarely on unfinished recovery and infrastructure work. He points to middle school facilities in Canton and Waynesville that are approaching a century in age and the difficulty school systems face securing state grants without land upon which to build. He has also highlighted efforts to reduce water and sewer debt for ratepayers by identifying unclaimed or underused state funds.
Those efforts, he argues, depend on experience and relationships built over time — relationships that allow him to walk into leadership offices and make the case for projects that are easy to overlook in a statewide budget.
“This is work,” Pless said. “And I didn’t slow down, even when I got told no.”
For voters in the 118th District, the question is whether that approach remains the best path forward in a region still digging out from disaster after disaster — and whether persistence in Raleigh continues to outweigh the conflicts it sometimes creates at home.
Pless’ Republican Primary Election opponent failed to schedule an interview with The Smoky Mountain News despite multiple requests. The winner of the Primary will go on to face Haywood County Democrat Danny Davis, a former judge, in November.
