From Staff Reports 

HENDERSONVILLE — Republican candidates swept all of the contested seats in historically conservative Henderson County in the Nov. 5 general election.

As a result of the strong, straight-party GOP vote, the party accomplished the following:

• The Henderson County Board of Commissions remains all-Republican.

• The GOP won all four seats on the newly partisan Henderson Board of Education, leaving it all-Republican — when school board member Stacey Caskey, who did not seek re-election, departs from the school board next month.

• The Republicans held on to the area’s congressional and state legislative seats.

• The GOP also snagged the only judgeship in the county that was not held by the Republicans.

“The only bright spot for the Democratic Party came in the city of Hendersonville, where voters elected two Democrats to the City Council in a nonpartisan contest,” the Hendersonville Lightning noted on Nov. 13.

Following are the winners of the two Henderson commissioner seats:

• Sheila Franklin, a long-time member of Fletcher Town Council who ousted incumbent County Commissioner Daniel Andreotta in the March 5 primary. On Nov. 5, Franklin defeated Democrat challenger Erik Weer.

• Jay Egolf, the current School Board chair, ran unopposed on Nov. 5, after defeating incumbent David Hill in the District 5 Republican primary.

The Henderson County Board of Education race left the county with all Republican school board members, and the following were the four winners:

Specifically Amy Lynn Holt, a former HCBOE chair, led the closely bunched pack of school board candidates by 15.4 percent of the vote, followed by incumbents Kathy G, Revis with 15 percent, and Robert M. Bridges with 14.5 percent, and newcomer Beth Campbell, with 14.3 percent. 

The Republicans’ decisive win came despite a strong and well-financed challenge by Democrat Mary Ellen Kustin, who finished fifth with 11 percent of the vote — 8,516 votes fewer than Campbell’s 35,922. Other failed Democrat school board candidates were Lesley Carey, Rhonda Mountain and Josh Williams.

Meanwhile, Republican Monica Jean Gillett unseated incumbent District Court Judge Lora T. Baker, turning back Baker’s attempt to achieve a rare victory as an unaffiliated candidate. Gillett won 60 percent of the vote in the solidly red Henderson-Polk-Transylvania judicial district.

Appointed to the bench in December 2023 by Gov. Roy Cooper, Baker, 41, collected enough signatures to earn a spot on the ballot and based her campaign on a pledge to “keep politics out of the courtroom.”

Gillett, 46, was a prosecutor in District 42 in 2007 before opening her own firm in private practice in 2009.

In congressional and legislative race, all three of Henderson County’s candidates, who won their first terms in office in 2022, emerged victorious on Nov, 5.

The results for three Henderson-based Republican legislators were as follows:

•  U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, easily won on Nov. 5, with 57 percent of the vote, over Democrat Caleb Rudow, who left a state House seat to run for Congress.

• State Senator Tim Moffitt won 64 percent of the vote to outpace Democrat challenger Chris Walters to earn a second term in the State Senate,

• State Rep. Jennifer Capps Balkcom, with 58 percent of the vote, topped Democrat challenger Steve Martinez.

While not based in Henderson County, state Rep. Jake Johnson, R-Saluda, earned a fourth term — with 64 percent of the vote — by defeating Democrat Michell Antalec.

Johnson, the state House deputy majority whip, represents the counties of Hendenderson, McDowell, Polk and Rutherford.