As unaffiliated voters have overtaken Republicans and Democrats as the largest voting group in the state, candidates running outside of the two major party apparatuses still struggle in elections, but several Western North Carolina candidates hope to change that narrative. 

There are four unaffiliated contenders in The Smoky Mountain News coverage area for 2028: two county commission candidates each in Haywood and Swain counties. They aim to upset the status quo and insert what they think will be a perspective free of the shackles that can come with being beholden to one major party or the other.

To appear on the General Election ballot, unaffiliated county commission candidates must garner signatures from 4% of registered voters in the county by Primary Election Day, and then the local boards of election must verify the signatures.

As the unaffiliated voter bloc has become larger than those of Republicans or Democrats, does that translate to successful unaffiliated candidacies? Western Carolina University Political Science Professor Chris Cooper said that hasn’t been the case in recent memory.

“Almost every part of our electoral system is pushing against them in some ways,” Cooper said. “The surprise isn’t that more don’t win, but that it’s a win at all.”

The candidates

Crawford worked 25 years for a public water and electric utility serving 60 counties in rural central Texas. He said that when he began paying attention to county government in Swain after retiring in the county, he felt that his experience could do some good. He began going to commission meetings and offering public comments.

“Oftentimes from those public comments, people would come up to me and say, ‘Gosh Fred, you were a voice for me. That’s exactly what I was thinking,’” he said. “People said ‘Why don’t you run?’”

Womble retired from the Navy in 2017 as a captain and immediately moved to the area with her husband. Unlike the other candidates discussed in this story, Womble previously ran for office in Western North Carolina. As an unaffiliated candidate, she received enough signatures to appear on the 2022 Swain County Commission ballot but lost in the General Election. She said that because of her time in the military, she understands how to work with others to bring to life policies that can better the county.

“There were enough issues and concerns that I had about the way that decisions were being made affecting the people of Swain County, including my family, that I wanted to be part of that discussion and decision-making process,” she said.

Hyatt moved to the area in the 1990s. She is the only candidate featured in this story who’d previously held office, having served as a county commissioner and state representative in Montana. Since moving to the region, she spent most of her time working at The Mountaineer, where she served as editor from 2003 until just a few years ago. Hyatt said she decided to run for office in December and hopes to bring outside-the-box solutions to the complex problems of the modern age.

“I think the tried-and-true solutions of yesterday are just not going to be applicable going forward,” she said.

Blake Hart was born and raised in Western North Carolina and serves as the executive director of Haywood Christian Ministry. Hart did not respond to multiple requests for an interview from The Smoky Mountain News and has not updated his campaign’s Facebook page since March.

Unlike Haywood County, where the commissioners elect their own chair, Swain County voters get to cast ballots specifically for that seat. Fred Crawford is running for commission chair in Swain while Womble is running for a regular commissioner seat. This means that while Hyatt and Hart will compete directly against each other, Womble and Crawford will not.  

The value of name recognition

Cooper noted that unaffiliated candidates in smaller communities tend to fare better since it’s easier to build that name recognition with a smaller voter base. One unique challenge unaffiliated candidates face is that they don’t have a party apparatus to help them gain name recognition. Everything must be built from scratch with no association to a known party brand. 

“If you don’t have a name recognition but you’re a Democrat, or you don’t have a name recognition but you’re Republican, that can be okay, because you’re still associated with the party. You’re going to have a base of voters who are already locked in place.”

While building a political brand during the campaign is vital, perhaps more vital in a small community is the work put in over the years ahead of an election, likely long before someone even ponders running for office. The unaffiliated county commission candidates in Haywood and Swain counties have each been involved in their communities in different ways and to varying degrees. 

Having spent almost three decades with The Mountaineer, Hyatt was visible at local events she was covering, and a lot of residents would recognize her name on a ballot from reading her byline. She said that for good or ill, her previous work as an editor and reporter has likely built name recognition, but she considers even more important that it familiarized herself with the people of Haywood County and what they care about.

Womble and Crawford haven’t been in Western North Carolina as long as Hyatt; however, they have been involved in local, regional and even state affairs for years.

Crawford serves on the board of Mainspring Conservation Trust and is Swain County’s delegate to the North Carolina Senior Tarheel Legislature. He also teaches yoga classes and for years has been a leader in the Swain County Beekeepers Association.

Womble has volunteered for several organizations and serves on both the Fontana Regional Library and Marianna Black Library advisory boards [Prior to and following her 2022 commission campaign, she wanted to be involved in the community, something she sees as an extension of her time serving in the military]. It was just a transition of service, she said.

Of course, for candidates, building name recognition, letting people know what they stand for and showing they can listen to concerns are still crucial up to election day. Crawford has cultivated a robust presence on Facebook. Hyatt has published weekly newsletters and has also hosted a series of “focus groups,” listening sessions that allow her to document prevailing opinions and common concerns.

“I can’t stop being a journalist, so I just ask people, ‘What do we do, and how is it working? What do you think we should do different?’” Hyatt said.

Getting on the ballot

To appear on a General Election ballot, an unaffiliated commission candidate must receive signatures on a petition endorsing their run from 4% of registered voters in the county. For Crawford and Womble, that number was about 400. In Haywood, for Hart and Hyatt, that number was almost 2,000.

Where Crawford mounted a coordinated campaign to collect the signatures, including through his Facebook page and multiple events, Womble took a different approach.

“I basically just had friends and I with copies of petition sheets and took them everywhere we went,” she said.

Likewise, Hyatt blitzed Haywood County, appearing at public events and even setting up shop at local businesses to collect signatures.

“I treated it like a job,” Hyatt said. “I started like the day after Christmas. I would go out every single day and get 25-to-30 signatures. I timed it. How much time does it take to get a signature? The average was about eight minutes.” 

While obtaining the requisite signatures is cumbersome, the candidates agreed that the process is beneficial, both when it comes to building further name recognition and learning more about how people feel about local issues.

“2,000 people had the chance to know who I am and what I was doing,” Hyatt said.

Womble recalled that a challenge was explaining to residents that their signature isn’t an endorsement, and some simply didn’t want their name and address appearing on the petition, which is a public record.

Most county boards of elections recommend that candidates receive more signatures than they think they’ll need, since a lot of people aren’t sure whether they’re registered to vote in the candidate’s county. Womble recalled that some folks thought they were registered in Swain but were actually registered in a surrounding county. Crawford said he aimed for 125% of the requisite 397 signatures and ended up with 550.

 While many, including Womble and Hyatt, thought the barrier to appearing on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate is cumbersome, Crawford felt differently.

“A lot of people say that’s not fair, but the reality of it is we live in a two-party system here,” he said. “I think it makes sense.” 

Disaffiliating

Although North Carolina has seen a sharp rise in unaffiliated voters, that hasn’t typically translated to unaffiliated candidates winning elections. Many who are unaffiliated still vote a straight-party ticket one way or the other.

Even many of the unaffiliated candidates have spent much of their lives affiliated with one of the two major parties, making some more disaffiliated than unaffiliated.

Until a few years ago, Hyatt was a registered Democrat. While serving the Navy, Womble was a Republican. Their voter records indicate that since living in Western North Carolina, Hyatt has also voted in Democratic Primary Elections while Womble has voted in Republican Primaries. However, Womble was quick to point out that her previous party affiliation never led her to vote a straight ticket.

“I don’t remember ever voting in my life a straight party ticket, whether in-person or absentee in the military,” she said. “I have always voted for who I wanted to and who I thought was the best candidate.”

Over the years Crawford has lived in Swain County, he’s voted in both Republican and Democratic primaries. He said that as a young man, he was a Democrat; through much of his working adult life, he was a Republican. Since living in Western North Carolina, he’s been unaffiliated.

While belonging to one of the major parties does have its benefits — the financial backing of a party apparatus and more opportunities for quick name recognition through party-sponsored events — Crawford, Womble and Hyatt said the benefit of being unaffiliated isn’t to be ignored. Simply put, having no party label means an elected official isn’t beholden to anyone but their constituents. This seems to work especially well for county-level offices, since most local issues aren’t matters of partisan politics.

“I can truly be who I am and say what I want to say, and it affects me,” Womble said. “I don’t have to worry that I’m going to say the wrong thing and the party will get mad at me.”