A long slog of canvassing, caucusing, and consolidating was to a conclude in a hectic five-week sprint to Election Day.
It was all planned: Rallies, stumps, speeches, caravans. Candidates for local offices, state legislature, governor, Congress, the presidency—yes, even the presidency—were slated for meet-and-greets because North Carolina is among seven “battleground” states pundits say will determine who sits in the Oval Office in 2025.
In four Swannanoa Valley counties—Buncombe, Henderson, Hayward, Madison—clustered around Asheville in western North Carolina, the Blue Ridge was electric in election friction between the growing city’s Democratic base and the deep red small towns ringing it—critical constituencies in any statewide race….