Edwards debacle spurring political game of musical chairs in WNC
THAT is what we’re hearing from that neck of the woods. Ted Budd‘s call for Chuck Edwards to scram apparently paid off. Edwards confirmed today he is bailing on his reelection bid to the Eleventh congressional district seat. We have about three months until the election. That creates a big gaping hole and a big gaping problem for North Carolina (and DC) Republicans.
Some well-placed Haymaker fans in DC tell us that the Capitol Hill crowd was already counting Edwards as a *goner* well before the ethics report dropped and ol’ Chuck announced he was quitting. Who seriously is willing to take on a congressional race – from scratch – with three months to go?
We understand that Edwards has until September 3 to formally alert Republican leaders in his district of his intention to quit the race. Once he does that, GOP leaders in the 11th will get together and nominate a replacement candidate to take on Democrat Jamie Ager.
Two names that have been floated hot-and-heavy as replacements have been state senator Tim Moffitt and Adam Smith, a businessman and Army special forces veteran who ran against Edwards in the March primary.
The word I hear from folks close to this discussion involves three different candidates and two General Assembly seats in addition to Edwards’ congressional seat.
The 11th congressional district includes all of these counties: Avery, Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk (part), Swain, Transylvania, and Yancey.
Senator Moffitt (district 48 – Henderson, Polk, Rutherford) would be tapped to replace Edwards
as the GOP nominee in the 11th district. State Rep. Jennifer Balkcom (district 117 – Henderson) would move over to run for Moffitt’s senate seat. The third piece to this puzzle would involve Adam Smith, Edwards’ primary challenger from March, running for the state House seat now held by Balkcom.
That’s a lot of moving around very close to the election. It’s a lot of risk to the majorities in both legislative chambers in Raleigh.
There is one issue that ought to give folks pause about Moffitt. He is tied to the Greater Carolina bourbon tour scandal. He went on at least one of the trips. It’s been reported that he was the only legislator who bothered to list the trip on his state ethics forms.
The prosecutor overseeing the probe into Greater Carolina is currently saying that no sitting legislators are at risk of being charged. (At least, right now.)
What are the chances of Moffitt running for Congress and there being new developments involving him in the Greater Carolina probe?
With the messy US Senate race – and now THIS – campaign 2026 in North Carolina is set to be more
outrageous and racier than anything the producers of the late Jerry Springer’s daytime show ever came up with.
I can hear my mother now. “When it rains it pours”.
I love you Browny, but you condoned the Harvey West disaster in NC1. Your county party let him facilitate a school board forum. We have to start calling out the predators in this party FINALLY!
If this can happen at this point to Chuck Edwards, it should certainly happen to both Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley. What Chuck is accused of doing sounds dumb, but what we know Cooper and Whatley have done is far worse, and should disqualify them both from office. I don’t have a good suggestion for the democrats replacing Cooper in this race, but I do insist that Whatley should be forced out and that Don Brown should be put on the ballot, instead. I can’t make it happen by myself, people. Help me out here.
Worse? Worse than grooming 2 staffers 40 years younger than Congressman Edwards? Worse than skipping votes to be inside a staffer’s home decorating her Christmas tree when she wasn’t even home? Missing a vote on a veterans bill! Canceling a town hall to spend time with staffer.
Both of these women began working for him when they were teenagers. He deleted 400 texts before the Ethics Committee investigation. Oh nothing to see here!
When is this party going to stand with victims over predators? Years of “the picnic”as just another judicial event. The nothing to see here approach is not working boys!!
Yes, worse. The murders committed by criminals Cooper released are far worse, and Whatley putting a known sex offender in charge of committees in the GOP is somewhat worse, on top of the fact that Whatley is a Tillis clone who stole the election for NCGOP Chair from Jim Womack.
You know I have been highly critical of Whatley for years and will be skipping that race. It is all disgusting! I am the one that wrote that censure language that Whatley tried to block from ever making it on the floor. And maybe one day you and I can discuss what Whatley and Tillis did to me and my family for supporting John Kane. They are both repugnant!
Are you really still talking about Harvey West? He’s gone. Done.
Let’s talk about something else. Can’t blame this election on him.
And right now. It’s going to be a brutal election for the GOP.
Moffitt is a Todd Johnson supporter so that would mean one less vote for Johnson’s president pro tem run. Which of those senators out there support Michael Lee?
why wouldn’t Adam Smith be a serious option?
Larry Pittman, I am in the Don Brown camp as well. How can the sane citizens in North Carolina make this happen over the next few weeks?
If the NCGOP and the National Republican Party had not coronated Whatley in the primary and if the primary had been held in May or June, perhaps Whatley could have been sidetracked.
“When it rains it pours”.