By Randy Foster
news@grahamstar.com
Murphy – Freshman U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) spent his first recess as a congressman touring the 15 counties of the 11th District, including a park renaming in Cherokee County.
Edwards was sworn in as a member of Congress following an unusually long process to elect a speaker of the House. Following his election in November, he has spent his time building a staff and offices in Washington and in his home district.
Congress generally meets three weeks out of the month followed by a one-week recess that gives U.S. representatives an opportunity to travel the district. As a state senator, he was generally home except when the Senate was in session.
His first stop on Jan. 10 was at Robbinsville Middle School. From there, Edwards’ entourage traveled to Murphy, where he participated in a park-renaming ceremony of Konehete Park, now called Konehete Veterans Park.
Also at the ceremony was state Sen. Kevin Corbin, who was Edwards’ colleague in the state Senate. Corbin said he normally doesn’t endorse candidates in Republican primaries, but he endorsed Edwards in a crowded field of eight contenders in the May 17 primary.
“I felt like he was the man for the job,” Corbin said.
Edwards narrowly beat incumbent Madison Cawthorn, 33.42 percent to 31.85 percent. Edwards carried Buncombe, Henderson and Transylvania counties, with Cawthorn winning the remaining 12 counties in the district. Edwards’ performance in the three most populous counties was enough to give him the overall lead.
Fast forward almost three months, Edwards’ recess tour included Cherokee and Graham counties, where Republican voters in the primary were decidedly for Cawthorn, who got just over 46 percent of the vote in Cherokee and 42 percent in Graham.
Edwards had a more comfortable margin in the general election, winning all but Buncombe County and getting 53.79 percent of the vote, with Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara getting 44.51 percent of the vote for second place.
Edwards’ introduction to Congress included a widely covered impasse in selecting a House speaker, but his local transition made headlines for another reason. Edwards claimed that Cawthorn didn’t forward constituent casework, hampering the transition. Cawthorn claimed he never heard from Edwards about the missing casework, a claim Edwards denied.
“We’re still having people call us,” Edwards said. “It’s tough to understand which ones have fallen through the cracks. We’re doing everything we can.”
Edwards said he is looking forward to visiting the 11th N.C. Congressional District, giving him the chance to “meet real people in these mountains.”
For now, Edwards has an office in the Capitol and in Hendersonville. He has been looking to fill staff positions with “competent, compassionate public servants.”
Edwards said he has made a “commitment to serve the people here,” saying his priority was not to build his Instagram audience or “get on Fox News.”
Edwards was part of the 15 rounds of voting that resulted in California Republican Kevin McCarthy being selected as House speaker. The process was described as turmoil and chaos by some news media, Edwards said, but he characterized it as something that should take place normally and represented “true discussion and eventually coming together.”
“I didn’t see it as chaos or turmoil at all,” Edwards said. “We should not be a rubber stamp.”
He said McCarthy’s concessions to reach the necessary votes led to a decentralization of power in the House that will give rank-and-file members a stronger voice.
“Our voice was snuffed out in Washington, D.C., for way too long,” Edwards said.
Aside from the two offices he has established, he said he is “exploring the best structure to serve the people of the district.” Maintaining five offices throughout the district has not worked well.