Davis officially enters NC-11 race; 4 Dems eyeing Edwards' seat
ASHEVILLE – Democrat Moe Davis, a retired Air Force colonel-turned author and podcaster, has officially announced his bid to represent North Carolina's 11th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Davis announced his candidacy in a June 10 news release. In May, he had told the Citizen Times that he intended to run for the seat now held by Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican from Flat Rock.
'I'm a Veteran who spent over 30 years defending democracy,' Davis said in the release. 'I refuse to sit back now and watch a bunch of billionaires and big corporations wreck what hardworking people spent generations to build.'
In a video paid for by his campaign committee, Davis wields a chainsaw and discusses his family's history in Western North Carolina and his 25 years he spent in the Air Force. And he talks about how he worked with neighbors clearing trees from roads and driveways in the immediate aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene and how he received his first shotgun before the age of 10.
He also zeroed in on Edwards, saying the two-term Republican was 'bought and paid for by the same billionaires and big companies.'
'When I get to Washington, I'm going to kick some ass for the working class,' Davis says in the video.
This isn't Davis's first run for Congress.
Davis, 66, ran for the same seat in 2020, losing to Republican Madison Cawthorn by 12 percentage points. Plagued by scandals, which included criminal charges for bringing a loaded gun through an airport checkpoint in Charlotte, Cawthorn served just one term in Congress, losing to Edwards in the 2022 Republican primary.
Edwards went on that year to defeat his Democratic opponent, former Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara. In 2024, Edwards beat then-state Rep. Caleb Rudow in the general election.
Davis will likely face at least three Democratic opponents in a primary set for March 3, 2026.
Chris Harjes, a Buncombe County real estate investor and nurse practitioner, announced his run for Congress in May.
'I've been increasingly frustrated with the partisan vitriol that's infected and is destroying American politics,' Harjes told the Citizen Times May 9 when asked why he decided to run. 'I find it scary, and I find the kind of overstep of the current administration, especially the attacks on free press and free speech, really frightening.'
Zelda Briarwood and Marcus Blankenship have also announced their bids for the seat.
In a May 10 candidate speech delivered at the district's Democratic convention, Blankenship called for the pursuit of a '21st-century New Deal,' one that would 'rebuild a vibrant working class.'
In a speech at the same event, Briarwood evoked her work as an advocate and case worker for victims of sexual violence and human trafficking.
'We're going through a crisis right now where we're facing our abusers up in Washington,' said Briarwood, a Haywood County Democrat. 'Allow me to support and advocate for all of us as your public servant like I'm supposed to.'
North Carolina's 11th Congressional District is typically a Republican stronghold. The last Democrat to win was former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler in 2006. Shuler defeated Charles Taylor, a long-time Republican congressman from Transylvania County. Shuler served three terms in Congress. After redistricting in 2011, Shuler decided not to run for reelection. He was succeeded by Republican Mark Meadows who went on to serve as White House chief of staff during President Donald Trump's first term in office.
But a race between Edwards and the top vote getter in the Democratic primary could prove more competitive in 2026.
North Carolina's 11th Congressional District was one of 19 districts across the country where voter support shifted away from Trump during the 2024 presidential election, according to Chris Cooper, a professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University. Cooper said the shift occurred at a time when most other districts moved more toward the Republican Party.
But Cooper cautioned that the shift, which resulted from redistricting and demographic changes, didn't mean that NC-11 had turned 'blue."
'You've got a district that is certainly not competitive by standard metrics but is the kind of district that could possibly flip if there really is a blue wave,' Cooper said.
More: 2 Democratic candidates eyeing Chuck Edwards' House seat for NC-11
More: Despite defeat, Caleb Rudow's campaign wasn't in vain, political experts say
Jacob Biba is the Helene recovery reporter at the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Email him at jbiba@citizentimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Moe Davis enters Congressional race; Dems eyeing Chuck Edwards' seat
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