History made on Buncombe County Commission with victories for Horton and Edwards

ASHEVILLE – Jennifer Horton and Amanda Edwards both made history Nov. 5 in their presumptive wins for seats on the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners.

A Fairview Democrat, Horton, 38, is the first Black woman to be elected to the county commission. Horton defeated Republican Paul Benjamin to represent District 1, which covers most of the southern and eastern portions of the county.

A registered nurse and owner and administrator of five assisted living family care homes, Horton received nearly 60% of the ballots cast in the race, with more than 31,000 total votes, to Benjamin’s 22,344.

Vying for board chair, Edwards, a second-term Democratic commissioner first elected in 2018, faced former Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan, 60, who ran as an unaffiliated candidate after leaving the Democratic Party. Edwards claimed 88,634 votes, or more than 60%, to Duncan’s 57,328.

Edwards, 47, will be the first woman to serve in the top spot on the county commission, replacing long-time chair Brownie Newman.

"It has taken 240 years, but we have broken the glass ceiling on the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners' board chair," Edwards told the Citizen Times Nov. 5.

Chris Cooper, a professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University, said women are often underrepresented at every level of government, both in North Carolina, as well as nationally. (With an all-women city council, Asheville is an exception.)

“I think it’s a good thing for the people of Western North Carolina that Buncombe County is also becoming an exception to that rule,” Cooper said. “I say that regardless of partisanship – it’s just that we know that increasing female representation is a positive good. It’s not enough, obviously, but it’s still a critical mark.”

‘You win some, you lose some’

Duncan, too, could have made history with a win. Running as an unaffiliated candidate is an incredibly steep hill to climb, Cooper said, describing it as an “almost Quixotic sort of affair.”

“Unaffiliated candidates rarely run,” he said. “When they do run, they rarely win.”

For Duncan, and fellow unaffiliated commission candidate, Bruce O’Connell, who lost to incumbent Democrat Terri Wells for the District 2 seat, which encompasses the northern and western-most portions of the county, this proved true.

That race was slightly more competitive given the redrawing of district maps in 2023 that shifted constituencies to make the district more Republican, Cooper said. A state law unique to Buncombe County mandates county commission maps follow state house districts lines.

Both Ducan and O’Connell had to collect thousands of signatures to even appear on the ballot for the general election. Despite strong recognition from his three terms as elected sheriff – and being on the receiving end of significant campaign contributions – Duncan still lost by more than 31,000 votes, or more than 20%, according to preliminary data. O’Connell lost by slightly less than 10%.

Still unclear is who will be appointed to fill Edwards’ District 1 seat, the term of which ends in 2026.

According to state law, the remaining commission board members will appoint a replacement from the same district and same political party, in this case a Democrat residing in District 3, as drawn in 2022 when Edwards was elected. Additionally, the Buncombe County Democratic Party's executive committee may offer a recommendation, though the board is not required to follow its suggestion.

While the history made on the local level may have been tempered by former President Donald Trump’s own history-making path back to the White House, a first for a convicted felon, it does show how voters from both parties can walk away from an election claiming some sort of victory, Cooper said.

In the case for local Republicans, their nominee defeated Vice President Kamala Harris at the national level, while Democrats can relish in their historic wins on the county commission and victories in the N.C. House.

“It’s a big, messy, complex system,” Cooper said. “It’s not even that you win some and you lose some in different years – you win some and lose some in the same year.”

More: Edwards defeats Duncan in race for chair of Buncombe County Board of Commissioners

More: Horton elected to Buncombe County commission; Wells holds seat

Jacob Biba is the county watchdog reporter at the Asheville Citizen Times. Reach him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: County commission history made with Horton and Edwards victories