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Coffay Drops Out Of Democratic Primary For NC District 11

Matt Bush BPR
Matt Coffay (podium) announces his candidacy in Waynesville earlier this year

Matt Coffay, a Democrat who earlier this year announced he would seek the party's nomination for North Carolina's 11th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, has announced he is dropping out of the race.  Coffay made the announcement in a Facebook post, saying that he's had "sudden personal circumstances occur that are beyond my control" that have "made it impossible for me to move forward while addressing these acute personal needs in order to run the campaign you deserve."

Credit Matt Coffay For Congress Facebook Page
Post from Matt Coffay For Congress Facebook page

Phillip Price is now the lone Democrat running for the party's nomination to take on 3-term incumbent Republican Mark Meadows.  Defeating the Freedom Caucus chairwill be a tough taskfor Democrats.  Meadows won last year's election with 64% of the vote.  In addition, the 11th district was heavily redrawn in 2011 to the benefit of Republicans, as the Democratic strongholds of Asheville and Buncombe County were split into both the 10th and 11th Congressional districts.  That allowed Meadows to take over the seat previously held by Democrat Heath Shuler. 

Matt Bush joined Blue Ridge Public Radio as news director in August 2016. Excited at the opportunity the build up the news service for both stations as well as help launch BPR News, Matt made the jump to Western North Carolina from Washington D.C. For the 8 years prior to coming to Asheville, he worked at the NPR member station in the nation's capital as a reporter and anchor. Matt primarily covered the state of Maryland, including 6 years of covering the statehouse in Annapolis. Prior to that, he worked at WMAL in Washington and Metro Networks in Pittsburgh, the city he was born and raised in.
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