Republished
by Lilly Knoepp, NCLocal
August 5, 2026
Following misconduct allegations and a censure recommendation by the U.S. House Ethics Committee, Rep. Chuck Edwards announced his departure from the Western North Carolina congressional race.
“After much prayer and reflection, I’ve decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign. I will complete my current term,” Edwards wrote on X at 3:30am on Wednesday. Edwards said he would serve out the remainder of his current term.
Earlier this week, the committee shared its findings into alleged misconduct and found no evidence that Edwards engaged “in sexual activity with or explicitly propositioned” any employees. However, it recommended censure calling Edwards’ conduct “inappropriate” and that it violated the House’s rules on sexual harassment.
The report included letters and text messages between Edwards and staffers where he discussed dinner plans, commented on their appearance and other personal messages. The messages also showed photos of gifts allegedly sent by Edwards such as an Adam Sandler puzzle and gallons of ice cream.
In his official response, Edwards’ team said the findings “exonerate” Edwards and called the censure “an extraordinarily harsh and infrequent punishment.”
On Tuesday, the News & Observer reported U.S. Senator Ted Budd encouraged Edwards to drop out of the race. Edwards faced a re-election challenge from Democrat Jamie Ager in November.
What happens now?
Edwards’ departure from the race happened in advance of the official deadline for withdrawal: September 3rd.
Past that deadline, a candidate is required to file official paperwork to be removed from the election, but given the advance nature of his announcement, Edwards can declare his departure from the race without official notice.
Ballots have not yet been finalized, Western Carolina University professor Chris Cooper explained.
“We should be fine procedurally at this point. I mean it is late, but it is not the kind of late that election administrators can’t handle,” Cooper said.
Absentee ballots are set to be distributed on Sept. 4 this year. In 2024, all 100 counties had to reprint ballots after a September N.C. supreme court decision.
“Now the power moves from the voters into the hands of the NC-11 Republican Executive Committee. This is a group of several dozen folks who get to decide who to put in his place,” Cooper said. The chair of the committee is Merry Guy, a former Henderson GOP party chair who ousted another Henderson County Republican Michelle Woodhouse for the position in 2025, the Hendersonville Lightning reported.
The 11th district covers about 15 counties which makes it roughly bigger than the state of Rhode Island.
According to state law, if a candidate “dies, resigns, or for any reason becomes ineligible or disqualified before the date of the ensuing general election,” the appropriate district executive committee of the political party shall appoint another candidate to fill the vacancy.
Representatives from each county GOP party are chosen by their respective parties to serve on the NC-11 committee. A list of executive committee members is not publicly available. A similar process happened earlier this year when Rep. Mike Clampitt passed away and was replaced as a candidate for November on the ballot by current-Rep. Anna Ferguson.
“It’s pretty complicated. First they have to agree about who they want, but also presumably people are going to be running almost little shadow campaigns where they are going to signal that they are interested in this position,” Cooper said. “Just because the executive committee says they would like it to be a certain person doesn’t mean that person will want to clear their schedule and run for Congress.”
According to state law, the committee must make its selection at least 75 days before the general election, which would be August 20.
The committee will meet Monday at 6:30pm at the Buncombe County Headquarters to choose a replacement nominee for Rep. Chuck Edwards, according to reporting by Axios.
While Edwards announcement happened less than 12 hours ago, speculations are already being made about who could be his replacement on the ballot. Cooper said that among the potential alternative candidates are:
- Primary challenger and Buncombe County Republican Adam Smith;
- Clay County Republican Christian Regan, who lost in the primary to Edwards in 2024;
- Sen. Tim Moffitt, who represents Henderson, Polk and Rutherford Counties and is currently running for re-election.
Axios also reported state Sen. Kevin Corbin and state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom are being discussed as possible candidates.
What about his campaign funds?
While Edwards will be replaced on the ballot, his campaign funds will also be up for grabs. The campaign must make a decision about how to redistribute or return the funds within 60 days, according to the Federal Election Commission rules.
The funds can be transferred from one federal campaign account to another federal campaign account, Cooper said.
Under FEC rules, the campaign may also elect to donate the money to charity or return it to donors, but the rules prohibit spending for personal gain.
Recent campaign finance reporting showed Edwards with less than $1 million funding, trailing Ager who has raised more than $3 million.
“Whoever the new candidate is is going to have to hit the ground running with fundraising. They’re going to almost have to run two campaigns at once: The local campaign for votes but also a national campaign to fundraise because they will start in a deep hole,” Cooper said.
No matter what the war chests hold, NC-11 is still a Republican district, Cooper said.
“Other than Buncombe County, no other county has voted for a Democratic candidate for president since 2008,” he said. “So it is not the case that Jamie Ager has a walk in the park to victory.”
This article first appeared on NCLocal and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
