Former congressional candidate Lynda Bennett has been sentenced to 12 months of probation after pleading guilty in March to violating the Federal Campaign Act of 1971.

Haywood County Republican and real estate agent Lynda Bennett will be sentenced in federal court on June 20 after accepting a plea agreement for violating campaign finance laws during her failed 2020 congressional bid.

With dozens of debunked allegations surrounding a “rigged” 2020 election still fresh on the minds of right-wing conspiracy theorists, Western North Carolina’s election administrators are welcoming unprecedented levels of scrutiny in advance of the 2022 General Election.

How, exactly, does someone lose a Primary Election in which they have almost a year’s exclusive advance knowledge of the seat’s impending vacancy, and the endorsement of the four-term incumbent who previously held the seat, and more than a million dollars in PAC money, and the full support of the President of the United States?

Republicans finally know who will face Democrat Moe Davis in the November General Election, and the results indicate a major embarrassment for President Donald Trump and his Chief of Staff, former congressman Mark Meadows.

As Republicans across North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District head to the polls, some of them are bucking their party and their president by putting principle over politics.

After widespread complaints about the way Georgia’s pandemic-influenced Primary Election was conducted last week, North Carolina’s top elections official isn’t taking any chances with the 11th Congressional District Second Primary slated for June 23.

A short video segment featuring NC11 congressional candidate Lynda Bennett that was produced by Asheville-based WLOS-TV at Haywood County’s early voting location violates state election law, according to North Carolina’s top elections official.

A year ago, few would have predicted that a crowded field of Republicans would eventually whittle themselves down to two, in a runoff, competing for the U.S. House seat of Asheville Republican Rep. Mark Meadows.

The March 3 Republican Primary Election for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District between 12 candidates hoping to represent the party in its bid to retain an important U.S. House seat resulted in no candidate achieving the required 30 percent threshold for victory, so a Second Primary – a “runoff,” in common parlance – will take place on Tuesday, June 23.