Murphy – Eight candidates have filed to run for U.S. House of Representatives District 11, including incumbent Republican Chuck Edwards and seven candidates who hope to replace him.
In the March 4 Republican primary, Edwards of Flat Rock faces Adam R. Smith of Fairview.
Five candidates are running in the Democratic Party primary: Jamie Ager of Fairview, Paul Maddox of Burnsville, Richard Hudspeth of Skyland, Zelda Briarwood of Canton and Lee Whipple of Asheville.
Travis Groo of Greensboro is running unopposed in the Libertarian primary.
The sprawling 11th District includes Avery County, Buncombe County, Cherokee County, Clay County, Graham County, Haywood County, Henderson County,
Jackson Count, Macon County, Madison County, McDowell County, Mitchell County, Polk County, Swain County, Transylvania County and Yancey County.
Chuck Edwards-R
Edwards, a businessman who owns McDonald’s franchises, was elected in 2022 after unseating one-term incumbent Madison Cawthorn in the Republican primary.
Edwards joined McDonald’s in 1989, working as an operations manager until 1991, senior business consultant from 1991 to 1996, and development coordinator from 1996-98. He also worked as the vice president of Henderson County Partners for Economic Progress. In 2013, he became a director of Entegra Financial Corp. In 2020, Entegra merged with First Citizens Bank.
Edwards was appointed to the N.C. Senate in August 2016 after Tom Apodaca resigned. He defeated Democratic nominee Norman Bossert in 2016, then was re-elected in 2018 and 2020.
In 2022, Edwards defeated Cawthorn in the Republican primary, losing 12 of 15 counties but carrying Buncombe County, the most populous county in the district, as well as his home county, Henderson County. Edwards won in the 2022 general election, defeating Democratic Party candidate Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, 53.8% to 44.5%.
Edwards ran unopposed in the 2024 Republican primary, defeating Democratic Party candidate Caleb Rudow 56.8% to 43.2%.
In Congress, Edwards has served on the National Security, Department of State and Related Programs Subcommittee as vice chair and the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee.
Rather than opening local offices, Edwards purchased a small recreational vehicle that travels around the district at announced times to provide constituent services.
Adam Smith-R
Green Beret veteran Adam Smith served 17 years in the U.S. Army, bringing what he described as crisis response experience to Congress – “from the mountains of Afghanistan to Hurricane Helene relief, he delivers results when it matters most for Western North Carolina families,” his campaign website says.
“When Hurricane Helene devastated our mountains, Adam didn’t wait for government permission,” according to his campaign materials. “He organized the largest civilian disaster relief operation in modern history, conducting over 2,500 air sorties and distributing 6 million pounds of supplies to our neighbors in need. Now he’s ready to bring that same decisive leadership to Congress, fighting for veterans, mountain families, and the values that make Western North Carolina strong.”
His campaign website boasts that he has zero years of experience as a politician.
Planks in his platform include veterans health, government reform, constitutional values, mountain independence, servant leadership and proven results.
Based in Asheville, Smith is a public speaker, podcast host of “Savage Freedoms Podcast” and leadership consultant. His message: “stop being a victim and become an asset to your family and community.”
Jamie Ager-D
Ager is a fourth-generation farmer and entrepreneur. Born in Fairview and raised on his family’s Hickory Nut Gap Farm, he spent his life growing food, building community, and working with people, he states in his campaign website.
“From a young age, my family taught me the values of public service, hard work, and neighborliness,” he said.
His great-grandparents was a Presbyterian minister who helped launch one of the region’s first farm cooperatives. My father, Jamie Clarke, served western North Carolina in the U.S. Congress and the state legislature and helped shape early programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
“I watched those values play out not in politics, but in the lives of our neighbors,” he said. “My father John served in the state House seat that my older brother, Eric, serves in.”
He graduated from A.C. Reynolds High School and earned degrees from Warren Wilson College in Environmental Studies with a concentration in sustainable agriculture and History.
From 2004-06, he participated in an Agriculture Leadership Development Program through N.C. State University. He returned to Fairview to raise his family and built Hickory Nut Gap, a sustainable meat company that employs 25 people and works with dozens of farmers across the region.
Planks in his platform include Hurricane Helene recovery, affordable and accessible quality healthcare, lowering costs, stopping government waste and corruption, reforming immigration, expanding benefits and services for veterans and military families, growing small businesses and good jobs, supporting local farms and a healthy food system, defending the environment and public lands, and keeping communities safe.
Paul Maddox-D
Maddox is a cancer researcher and entrepreneur.
“Cancer doesn’t care who you voted for,” he said on his website. “Neither did Hurricane Helene. But when western North Carolina struggles, Washington turns its back (especially our current Congressman, Chuck Edwards). I’m running so my mom doesn’t have to drive to Asheville to see a doctor and so my neighbors in Yancey County can afford groceries and insulin. There’s a cancer running through Washington, and I’m running to cure it.”
His roots along the South Toe River in Yancey County go back five generations. Growing up in both Yancey and Buncombe counties, he and his brother were raised by their father, a local family doctor and Bronze Star recipient from the Vietnam War, and their mother, a public school teacher. He worked at Subway and at a local toy store before graduating from Enka High School.
He graduated from U.C. Chapel Hill with a bachelor of science degree and a Ph.D. in biology. He has published over 100 scientific articles and traveled internationally as a cancer researcher. He has taught at UNC for nearly 12 years.
An entrepreneur, he founded two small businesses, including one along with his wife Amy, a fellow cell biologist and cancer researcher. His work with these companies advance the fight against cancer by equipping scientists around the world with the tools they need to succeed, he said.
He holds 10 patents in the field of cancer research and therapeutics.
Maddox said he is running for Congress because he’s spent his career working to find cures for cancer, and “no place is sicker right now than D.C.”
“A political outsider, Paul knows that now is the time to step up and speak out because DC politicians like Chuck Edwards have forgotten about Western North Carolina families,” his campaign website said. “Paul believes working families like the one he grew up in deserve a Representative who cares about people from all communities, large and small, from Asheville to Zirconia. As our next congressman, Paul will always fight to lower costs, make health care affordable and ensure our government actually works for the people it represents instead of tearing down our communities.”
Richard Hudspeth-D
As a young man, Hudspeth worked in Kolkata, India, with Mother Teresa’s Home for the Destitute and the Dying, where he witnessed the transformative power of compassion to heal, even in the face of unimaginable hardship, according to his website.
Years later, he volunteered to help when Ebola broke out in West Africa. “He chose to be on the front lines, because when people are suffering, you don’t wait for someone else to step up. You show up,” according to his website.
“When I came home to North Carolina, I brought that same sense of duty to my work as a family physician and later at Blue Ridge Health, where I served as CEO,” he said. “Under my leadership, we expanded access to care for thousands of families across Western North Carolina in nine rural counties. And when Hurricane Helene struck our region, I helped lead our health center‘s response and our collaboration with the region’s response, making sure care reached all those who needed help. To me, leadership means running toward the crisis, not away from it.”
Hudspeth earned his bachelor’s degree from Duke University and my M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He completed a family medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati and an obstetrics fellowship at the University of Utah.
“I’m running because I believe this moment demands leaders who still understand what service means,” he said. “Leaders who know that integrity isn’t a slogan – it’s a practice. I’m not in this to score points or win headlines. I’m here because I’ve seen what happens when politicians stop listening to the people they represent. Western North Carolina doesn’t need another politician making promises. We need a doctor who knows how to diagnose what’s broken, and fight like hell to fix it.”
Zelda Briarwood-D
Briarwood describes herself as a wilderness educator, victim service practitioner, crisis services manager, qualified mental health professional, addiction and recovery technician and human rights advocate.
“I’ve spent a decade working in direct care and as an advocate – standing beside people in their hardest moments, committed to changing their lives,” she said. “Now, I’m going to take that experience to fight for WNC in Congress as District 11’s next representative.”
She has been living and working in western North Carolina since the 2010s.
After studying psychology and outdoor recreation at the University of South Carolina, then adventure-based psychotherapy and adventure education at Prescott College, she left college with the aspiration of becoming a wilderness therapist.
“Unfortunately, she succumbed to alcoholism and addiction, which nearly took her life,” according to her website. “Today, she has over six years of sobriety, and has since used her recovery as a catalyst for positive change. She guided young adults in early recovery on weekend backpack expeditions at Red Oak Recovery, worked admissions at Outward Bound and CooperRiis, managed crisis services at Appalachian Community Center, and provided case management for survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking at OurVoice.
“When Helene struck, Zelda was working as a technician with Quality Data Systems. She spent the next three months working to get ATMs, vaults, and cash counters operational for banking institutions all over WNC. During that time, Zelda witnessed the mountains face disaster recovery head-on. From Banner Elk to Murphy, she saw every single county come together for the sake of others, regardless of circumstance. Zelda, with renewed conviction, decided to take her expertise as an educator and advocate and use it to represent Western North Carolina at the national level”
Some of the planks in her platform include increased funding for rural health care, strengthen Social Security by closing tax loopholes for the ultra wealthy, ensuring long-term program stability, increase staffing to expand support for seniors and disabled, reject every attempt to privatize the vital institutions of Social Security and Medicare, restore funding and expand Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing, lower prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices while also fighting to cap out-of-pocket expenses for seniors and working families, expand Medicaid, protect the community’s health care by expanding hospitals and clinics, including clinics for veterans in rural areas, support for nurses by ensuring safe staffing levels, reduce taxes for the working class and raise the federal minimum wage to at least $17, cut corporate tax breaks and pour that money into small businesses, invest in education by raising teacher pay and providing free school meals to every student., expand access to vocational and technical training, fully fund special education and mental health services, resuscitate the economy by cutting company tax breaks, provide tax incentives and grants for small businesses that hire locally and offer competitive wages and invest in research that creates new area job opportunities.
Lee Whipple-R
No information was available as of press time.
Travis Groo-Libertarian
Groo’s Facebook page describes him as an entrepreneur.