For seven years, voters in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District had limited choices: Republican Rep. Mark Meadows and whatever Democrat faced him in a district gerrymandered for GOP advantage.
That all changed Dec. 19 when Meadows, a conservative firebrand and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, announced he wouldn’t seek re-election.
Meadows stated: “My work with President Trump and his administration is only beginning.” He now appears poised as Trump’s “chief of staff in waiting — ready to assume the position in a second term if Trump wins re-election,” Politico reported.
Meadows’ announcement that he wouldn’t seek a fifth term came one day before the deadline for candidates to file to run. But that short window did not stop a flurry of Republican candidates from entering the race for the GOP nomination.
Five Democrats are also running for their party’s nomination, spurred by recent changes to the 11th Congressional District’s boundaries that have reduced the GOP’s advantage.
GOP voters in Henderson County have a little more than two months to get to know their crowded slate of candidates before the March 3 primary. Democrats across the 11th District who previously faced extremely long odds against a powerful incumbent will also have to recalibrate their campaigns as they run against the party of Trump and an as-yet-unknown Republican.
The dozen Republican candidates are Chuck Archerd of Asheville, Lynda Bennett of Maggie Valley, Matthew Burril of Asheville, Madison Cawthorn of Hendersonville, Jim Davis of Franklin, Steven Fekete Jr. of Lenoir, Dillon S. Gentry of Banner Elk, Wayne King of Kings Mountain, Joey Osborne of Hickory, Vance Patterson of Morganton, Dan Driscoll of Winston-Salem and Albert Wiley Jr. of Atlantic Beach. Congressional candidates do not have to reside in the district in which they are running.
On the Democratic side, the five candidates running are Steve Woodsmall of Pisgah Forest, Gina Collias of Kings Mountain, Moe Davis of Asheville, Michael O’Shea of Mills River and Phillip G. Price of Nebo.
Polk County unaffiliated candidate Winn Sams, who was running in District 10 before the lines changed, is seeking 8,000 signatures to be added to the 11th District ballot. There is also a Green Party candidate, Tamara Zwinak of Franklin, and a Libertarian, Tracey DeBruhl of Asheville.
Among all these candidates, two have clear establishment ties. King is currently Meadows’ deputy chief of staff and has already been endorsed by eight WNC sheriffs, including Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin and Transylvania County Sheriff David Mahoney.
Price, the Democratic nominee in 2018, had not planned to run but changed his mind after Meadows announced he would not seek re-election.
The 11th District is more competitive since legislators adopted new voting district maps that restored the city of Asheville and areas that had been cut out of the district by GOP gerrymandering in 2011.
The result is a wide-open race with a plethora of candidates who will present voters with more choices than they have had in a long time.
— Times-News of Burlington
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