Last week, voters in North Carolina elected a mixed ticket. Republican Donald Trump took the presidency, whereas Democrats won multiple state offices, including governor and lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. In the General Assembly, Republicans kept control, but without another GOP supermajority in the state House.
While the new legislature will not sit until January, the General Assembly is likely to discuss additional relief options for Western N.C. when it meets later this month.
To understand what impact the election results may have on the ongoing efforts to provide relief and help the region recover from Hurricane Helene, we spoke to Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers and Nathan Ramsey, executive director of the Land of Sky Regional Council.
These conversations have been edited for length and clarity.
Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, who has led his town through Hurricane Fred, the closure of the local paper mill, and Hurricane Helene, shared his thoughts about this transitional period.
What kind of aid are you still hoping for from the state?
I have great hopes and expectations for not just the amount of funding, but the way it’s provided. You know, less strings attached, more direct than what we’ll get from the feds. I’m also hoping for urgency.
When the General Assembly returns, they need to be clear, especially to our business community, that there are grants, there are opportunities to do this. There is— from farmers to business owners to others—a sense of urgency and some expectation that help is on its way. And if that does not happen, then again, I worry about the economy of Western North Carolina.
You mentioned there might be fewer strings attached to state aid than aid from the federal government.
I have no doubt the best, most direct, efficient needs will come from Raleigh, not D.C. I’m not trying to just take a jab at D.C. I just think this state is prepared and does have the resources, no doubt about it, to do a lot of good very quickly.
In that case, you’re looking for grants, or opportunities that support businesses and farmers to help them get through the winter.
Many of these businesses are still repaying debt from covid loans. So I think that there needs to be something that is directed toward grants. I know I’ve talked to Sen. [Thom] Tillis—there’s also maybe debt forgiveness, but that’ll be at the federal level. So I think we have to use many, many tools to answer this. Gov. [Roy] Cooper said an unprecedented disaster requires an unprecedented response.
The supermajority in the General Assembly has been broken. Do you think that will affect anything regarding this aid?
I don’t. The [legislators] that we have turned to are Sen. Kevin Corbin, Sen. Ralph Hise, Rep. Mark Pless. Those were stalwarts for us beforehand, and they will remain.
What about federal aid? Do you have any concerns about a new administration?
There are people that we have been working with very closely, at all parts of the federal government, and those men and women may not … be with us in the next few months. So we’re going to have to spend time re-educating and telling our story.
Whatever one’s personal politics are, and you are in a situation of transitioning your office over to someone that you did not vote for—I understand that, and I appreciate that— however, that better not slow or disrupt or hinder the effort to rebuild Western North Carolina.
One of our greatest fears is we’re going to be forgotten. And so it’s up to us, the ones that are here, elected and non-elected, all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, to keep the focus on these people and their needs.
Regional councils are local government bodies that receive federal and state funding to administer programs related to workforce, aging, transportation, and other areas where cross-county collaboration is useful. There are 16 in the state.
Nathan Ramsey is the executive director of Land of Sky Regional Council, which includes Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, and Transylvania counties, as well as all 16 municipal governments within them.
Do you anticipate the change in the composition of the state legislature will have any impact on disaster relief funding?
We haven’t seen any discord, as far as legislators on both sides of the aisle wanting to help Western North Carolina.
I don’t know if the election really had any impact…I was actually pretty surprised how well people were getting together prior to the election, because that’s generally a challenging time. I think it just demonstrates the effort of our leaders in Western North Carolina, and really across the state and nation, to try to help us in our time of need.
Two packages have been passed already. Have you identified areas of need that have not been addressed yet?
This is a five- to 10-year, or longer, effort to rebuild our communities. This is not a short-term game, but there are short-term needs. Businesses need funding now; they can’t wait long periods of time. So I know [the U.S.] Congress is working to fund the Small Business Administration. [This federal agency requested more funds after running out of money on October 10, but four Republican senators have held up the funding process, expressing concerns about the agency’s management.]
There have been some grant funds provided through Dogwood Health Trust, Golden LEAF Foundation, and others to provide grants directly to businesses. But there needs to be more of that. Our businesses can’t take on more debt. Western North Carolina suffered over $53 billion in damages, according to the state budget office.
This disaster, it made all the challenges we had prior to the disaster…it just exacerbated all of them. We had a housing problem beforehand. We had very low vacancy rates, really high housing prices. We were struggling with affordability. Well, this disaster just took out thousands of housing units. It probably will have impacts on the land where we can rebuild.
How often are you in conversation with state and federal legislators right now?
We have conversations probably almost on a daily basis with our federal and state partners. One of the things we’re trying to do is create a little more alignment. That’s where we’re working with our adjoining councils of government, local governments, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, and the North Carolina League of Municipalities so we can all get on the same page.
You expect right before the election that things get a little sticky. Overall, I was struck by how little politics there was. [NC] Rep. [Caleb] Rudow on the state level and Congressman [Chuck] Edwards were running against each other, but they were both doing herculean things to help our community. That’s just one example.
As one of our local government managers said, we only have friends right now.
Have you been in contact with the new administration?
Gov. Cooper and his team have done a great job in trying to make sure that the next governor does not have to start from ground zero. They will be able to pick this up and move forward in a really expeditious way.
Sara Murphy is a freelance writer based outside of Asheville. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and other media.
Lisa Rab, whose work has appeared in The Washington Post Magazine and Politico Magazine, lives in western N.C. You can find more of her work at lisarab.substack.com.
This story was produced by the WNC Election Hub, a project of the NC Local News Workshop, in partnership with The Assembly and funded with generous support from the Knight Election Integrity initiative.