As the new Congress convened this month, newly elected Western North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards plans on taking his work ethic from his time as a state senator in Raleigh to Washington, D.C.
“I have a reputation in Raleigh as being a workhorse, being there early and working late and being there to serve and drive legislation,” Edwards told the Rotary Club of Franklin during its weekly meeting on Jan. 18. “And that work ethic has been recognized and carried over to Washington, D.C.”
Sworn in Jan. 3, Edwards serves the 11th District of North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives. NC-11 now includes Macon, Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Madison, McDowell, Polk, Swain, Transylvania, Yancey and part of Rutherford counties.
“One of my hopes as senator representing this district was that he would not forget where far Western North Carolina was,” said Franklin’s Kevin Corbin, a state Senate colleague.
Corbin introduced Edwards to the Rotarians, saying he was a “workhorse” while serving in the North Carolina General Assembly in Raleigh prior to his congressional run. Corbin said Edwards started working at age 16 at a Hendersonville McDonald’s and years later, bought that and other McDonald’s locations as proof of his work ethic.
Edwards defeated incumbent Madison Cawthorn in the 2022 Republican primary by 1,300 votes, then defeated Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara with 53.8% of the vote (winning by 30,000 votes) in November’s General Election.
Committee assignments
The Flat Rock Republican might be a freshman on Capitol Hill, but his three committee assignments have already put him in some important positions.
Edwards said appointment to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is the most significant to him.
“The reason that I worked so hard to get on that committee is that it’s one I felt I could use to make the biggest difference back here in the district,” Edwards said. “It was a bit of a longshot that a new member would be appointed to that committee, but I’m really thrilled that my experience and work ethic was realized.”
The second committee is the House budget committee. Edwards said he and other members are concerned with the national debt, saying the federal government hasn’t put forth a balanced budget in many years. He lauded his NCGA experience putting together what he feels like were fiscally responsible budgets.
“I am thrilled that they chose to put an experienced [person] and business manager on that committee,” Edwards said, to which someone in the crowd responded, “good luck.”
The third committee assignment is the House Committee on Oversight and Government Accountability. Edwards said he’s looking forward to a subpoena of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and “folks from the [Biden] Administration and get underneath what’s been taking place in our federal government and creating some transparency and maybe helping replace some folks who need to look for another job and hold government accountable.”
Silverware and Speaker votes
Edwards talked with Rotarians about his moving escapades and adjusting to Washington, D.C.
“So many folks believe in Washington, D.C., that congressmen live these lavish lifestyles and stay in these great homes and lavish hotels and have wonderful, exotic dinners, that sort of thing,” Edwards said before talking about selling his Raleigh condo and moving into an apartment about half its size in D.C. due to rental costs. “I still got about 15 boxes that I need to unpack in my apartment, and I’ve not found my silverware yet. I’ve had that apartment for maybe almost a month now and I’ve not found my silverware.”
Edwards said he has one plastic fork in his D.C. apartment that he got from a McDonalds Door Dash order. But in good news, he found his coffee pot last week. However, Edwards said his wife had to use his screwdriver as a coffee stirrer for lack of other available options.
“So, it’s far from lavish,” Edwards said.
At the end of his presentation, Rotary Club of Franklin President Paul Garner presented Edwards with two sets of silverware from that day’s catered lunch.
One perk so far, Edwards said, is that Congress gets at least one week a month off. Edwards said that is not the case in the N.C. General Assembly, where he previously served.
“I got to tell you, this is the most fun I’ve had in serving in office,” Edwards said of going on his 15-county tour this week. “As I’ve said, Washington, D.C., is not special, you people are.”
During his presentation, Edwards introduced some of his staffers to the Rotarians that he said will serve the constituents of Western North Carolina, saying it’s one of his top priorities. Those staffers in attendance included Brittney Lofthouse, who will work as a field representative for Edwards in the westernmost six counties of NC-11. Edwards will have an office in the Macon County Courthouse.
Another staffer is former banker Chris Burns, one of Edwards’ good friends from Hendersonville who will work as district director. Rounding out the Edwards team in attendance was Chief of Staff Bronwyn Lance, a Leicester native and veteran Capitol Hill staffer.
Edwards talked about the first week of Congress and the much-covered Speaker of the House election, which took 15 votes due to disagreements among some Republicans.
Edwards disputed the “chaos” and “turmoil” headlines he said the news media came up with to describe the multiple speaker votes.
“I was there, I took all 15 votes, sometimes I was there until 2:30 in the morning,” Edwards said. “There was no chaos, there was no turmoil, I describe what took place a ‘democracy in action.’ There was a great deal of debate, sometimes it was passionate and there were some negotiations taking place.”
Edwards said that he believes Democracy should not be easy and there should be time for elected officials to express their views. And whether it be in Raleigh or Washington, D.C., Edwards said bills and acts “should not simply be rubber stamped as in the past; that’s somewhat why we’re in the mess we’re in today.”
Edwards told the crowd he believes the 15 Speaker votes (all of which he voted for eventual Speaker Kevin McCarthy) helped him represent Western North Carolina.
House bills passed so far
Another positive Edwards sees is that the Rules Package passed after the speaker vote “decentralized” the decision making.
“Over the last several decades, the authority for what bills can move and the circumstances the amendments can be offered, really stayed in the hands of maybe half a dozen people,” Edwards said. “But because we took that week [for the speaker vote] and we had debate and shared our concerns, we ended up with a package that allows ‘rank and file’ members like me to have a little bit more say to represent people back at home like you. I think that was far from chaos.”
The following weeks for Edwards in Congress were spent passing several bills which he said, “are very important to the American people.”
Among those bills passed by the House and to be sent to the Senate include one “defunding” 87,000 IRS agents which Edwards said was a plan to be “weaponized against the U.S. people.” That follows conservative claims that armed IRS agents would target low- and median-income households, a claim that the IRS itself denied and fact-checking organizations debunked.
Edwards also lauded a passed resolution condemning violence against pregnancy centers and pro-life centers since the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down abortion as being federally protected, saying there’s been no arrests in any of those cases.
Later when responding to a Rotarian who questioned the legitimacy of Edwards’ claims of violence against pregnancy resource centers, Edwards referenced the June 2022 vandalism of Mountain Area Pregnancy Services in Asheville, a pro-life Christian-based organization that had a window broken and was defaced with red paint; he encouraged those in attendance to Google it.
Another bill passed by the U.S. House that Edwards lauded was the “Born Alive Abortion Bill,” where he said a baby who survived a late-term abortion attempt would have to be saved by medical personnel. A similar bill passed the NCGA, but was vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper, who said the practice does not exist and simply was an attempt to intimidate medical personnel into not giving abortions.
“We’re anxious to see if the Senate will take it up and pass it on to President Biden,” Edwards said of the Born Alive Abortion Bill.
Edwards said one of America’s biggest threats is the “trade imbalance” with China and lauded a new House Select Committee that will investigate American’s dependance on Chinese trade.