2020 north carolina primary

On February 7th  Blue Ridge Public Radio held a forum with three candidates running for the Republican nomination for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, which encompasses all of Western North Carolina.  All told, 11 candidates are running in the GOP primary.  Each were invited to participate in two forums BPR held.  This forum features three of them – Wayne King, Vance Patterson, and Albert Wiley.  Early voting for the primary election in North Carolina runs until February 29th.  Those who have not registered to vote yet will only be able to do so during the early voting period.

On February 5th, Blue Ridge Public Radio held a forum in its studios with the candidates running for the Democratic nomination for the North Carolina state senate seat for district 49, which covers central and western Buncombe County.  Democrat Terry Van Duyn currently holds the seat, but is vacating it to run for lieutenant governor in 2020.  Republican Bob Penland is running for his party’s nomination unopposed.  His opponent in the fall will be either Julie Mayfield, Ben Scales, or Travis Smi

Early voting is underway in North Carolina for the March 3rd primary.  Voters in Western North Carolina will have plenty of candidates from the major parties to choose from for the 11th Congressional District seat – 16 of them to be exact, 11 Republicans and 5 Democrats.