news
Democrats, Republicans target vulnerable Cawthorn in NC-11 BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR estern North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District has garnered national attention for electing one controversial Trump-affiliated Republican congressman followed by another controversial Trump-affiliated Republican congressman who now finds himself in the fight of his political life against fellow Republicans. Republicans aren’t the only ones hoping to make Madison Cawthorn a one-term congressman. An energetic field of six Democrats – some of whom have been campaigning for more than a year now – find themselves in a contest that is less about partisan intrigue than it is about trying to build power outside their traditional Asheville stronghold.
W
uring the 2020 campaign, Democrats were outraged not only by Madison Cawthorn’s polarizing statements, but also by the long list of questions about his character. After Cawthorn won and was sworn in on Jan. 3, 2021, it only got worse. “I always imagined that Democrats would not like me,” Cawthorn told Blue Ridge Public Radio in his congressional office just two weeks after rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Six weeks later, Democratic Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara became the first person to challenge Cawthorn not even two months after he took office. “I bring a unique background and track record into this race,” said Beach-Ferrara, an ordained minister and executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality. “I’ve won office twice in two tough races for county commission and then being elected to that seat. I also bring a track record of policymaking and building bipartisan support to pass policies on exactly the issues that are front and center in the lives of families across Western North Carolina.” As a commissioner and a nonprofit exec, Beach-Ferrara has experience with some of the region’s most pressing issues, like access to pre-K, the opioid crisis, workforce development and affordable housing. She’s the most high-profile of the candidates, and is perceived as the frontrunner by most observers. But every race has its underdog, and Buncombe County environmental engineer Katie Dean may just be that. Dean is active in the outdoor recreation community, and with her husband Zack owns an auto repair shop, giving her strong exposure to the small business community. “Our campaign has significant traction amongst that base,” she said. “We bring something to the table that most other candidates don’t or can’t, and that’s a level of authenticity and enthusiasm and energy 8 around our campaign to turn out the vote in
Smoky Mountain News
April 20-26, 2022
D
a variety of demographics that status quo politicians usually struggle with.” One of those demographics is rural Southerners. Asheville has a Democratic city council and Buncombe County has a Democratic county commission. The county hasn’t gone for a Republican presidential candidate since 2004 (narrowly), but the district is about 54% Republican and every state and federal legislator west of Buncombe is a also Republican. Uncontested races aren’t rare and are indicative of how Michele Democrats have recentWoodhouse ly struggled to reach voters in the most rural and economically disadvantaged parts of the district. That’s something Beach-Ferrara is trying to change. “I think there’s probably a number of different reasons we could look at historically,” she said. “What I can tell you is that in our campaign, we are fully committed to an approach that is about organizing everywhere and doing that in a way that’s about listening what matters to people, and then sharing a message about way that Democrats deliver.” Dean has also recogChuck Edwards nized the value of reaching out to voters that don’t often find Democrats on their doorstep. “The results of this race is not going to be an either/or,” she said. “It’s not gonna be either earning the rural vote or earning all of Buncombe County’s vote. Our district is 15and-a-half counties large. It’s about the size of Connecticut.” In a district that large, having the money needed to spread that message is crucial, especially among the unaffiliated voters who now make up the largest share of North Carolina’s electorate. As of March 31, Beach-Ferrara has raised almost 15 times the amount of money as the rest of the field combined. “Our average donation is about $38,” she said. “We’ve had donations from every corner of the district from the start and all told that’s enabled us to raise more than $1.4 million at this point.” According to FEC reports, Beach-Ferrara also has more cash on hand than her opponents, and more than Republican frontrunners Cawthorn and Sen. Chuck Edwards. Dean is a distant second behind BeachFerrara in fundraising, counting $56,000 in the current cycle. “From day one, I’ve been told it’s all about
the money, it’s all about the money, it’s all about the money,” she said. “The metric to measure a candidate’s worth based on money alone — that’s what we’re running against. I think the people of Western North Carolina are sick and tired of feeling like we can be bought and paid for.” Dean has earned one interesting endorsement, from a nonpartisan PAC that has only one mission — to unseat NC-11’s current representative. It’s called Fire Madison Cawthorn, and it caused a stir by first endorsing one of Cawthorn’s Jasmine Republican primary Wendy Beach-Ferrara opponents, Nevarez. Nevarez was the first Republican to announce a challenge to Cawthorn, just three months after the inauguration. A Navy veteran, Nevarez has positioned herself to the left of the field and will serve as an important test of the sway Cawthorn — and Trump — still hold over the Republican party. The PAC provoked more controversy by asking Democrats to reregister as unaffiliated before the April 22 deadline so they could vote against Cawthorn on the Republican Primary ballot. “As a Democratic Katie Dean candidate in the primary, I disagree with the strategy,” Dean said. “What I would like to see is that coming out of the primary, the Democratic party be as unified as possible to run a hardworking, energetic, enthusiastic campaign to defeat the branded extremism that Madison Cawthorn has brought into our lives.” Dean is running in a lane slightly to the right of Beach-Ferrara, but the two seem to agree on the nonpartisan PAC’s role in this election. “I don’t see how that strategy works in this race, in this moment,” Beach-Ferrara said. “One thing that we’ve been out there just really encouraging folks to do is connect to and support and be part of a campaign you really believe in.” In 2020, Democratic nominee Moe Davis raised more than $2.2 million, and still came up short against Cawthorn’s $4.7 million. Plus, voters haven’t given Democrats more than 42% of the vote in this district since 2012. Some Dems wonder if this year’s race is even winnable. “If we send the right candidate, yes, 100%, absolutely,” said Dean, who recently announced the addition of longtime John Lewis aide and New York Times bestselling
author Andrew Aydin to her campaign team. “I think this is a battleground district. The way the maps changed from 2020 to 2022, we lost two counties that were Republican strongholds by well over 60%. So that’s advantageous to us.” The redrawn map does make the district just a little bit more Democrat-friendly, but Dean says it doesn’t present the whole picture. “When it comes to the metrics of the race and the data on the page, it tells a story of the past,” she said. “What I don’t think the data and metrics [show], for how Republican-leaning this district is, I don’t think it fully captures the mood and the moment that we have right now.” Beach-Ferrara is likewise working on voters outside Buncombe County who will need to show up strong in both the primary and the general. “This is a race that is very winnable for the right kind of campaign and that’s a campaign that is building a table where there’s room for everyone,” she said. Everyone, including Republicans fed up with Cawthorn’s controversies. “Just a day or so ago I spoke with a gentleman who has been a lifelong Republican and he said you know, this just isn’t … what he’s doing is just not what it means to [be] Republican and not something I want to be affiliated with,” Beach-Ferrara said. “He’s trying to figure out what to do, that voter, and our job is to be there for that conversation not just once but many times.” n many ways, Madison Cawthorn owes his political existence to Mark Meadows, the influential former leader of the House Freedom Caucus. Meadows represented North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District beginning in 2012 until his last-minute 2019 announcement that he wouldn’t seek another term. Meadows resigned from his seat in 2020 to become chief of staff to President Donald Trump, and is currently under subpoena by the congressional committee investigating the events of Jan. 6. He’s also being investigated by state authorities for alleged voter fraud, after advancing debunked conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. Meadows’s exit from the heavily Republican district produced a 10-candidate GOP Primary Election in which a thenunknown Cawthorn finished a surprising second to a Trump-backed candidate he later trounced in the runoff. Once Cawthorn became the nominee, a pattern of troubling allegations emerged. First, it was alleged sexual harassment of a former classmate. Then it was claims of white supremacist sympathies. Then it was stolen valor, over his rejected application to the U.S. Naval Academy. Then it was his poor academic record and repudiation from former classmates at conservative Patrick Henry College. Voters didn’t seem to care about any of it, and handed Cawthorn a decisive victory over the Democratic nominee in November 2020. “The people of Western North Carolina said that we are sending a weapon to
I
