A House bill proposed by Western North Carolina reps. Mike Clampitt, R-Bryson City, and Mark Pless, R-Haywood, includes significant changes to a judicial district that is larger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

Filed in the General Assembly on March 15, House Bill 280  contains only 112 words, but if it gains legislative approval its impact in Western North Carolina would be huge. 

In the interest of transparency, all responses from local officials regarding the Jan. 6 insurrection have been published online, in their entirety. Some submissions may have been lightly edited for grammar, spelling and punctuation or to conform with AP style. 

They’ve now run against each other five times in 10 years so there’s not much voters don’t know about them already, but the first question of the Blue Ridge Public Radio/Smoky Mountain News forum Sept. 24 between Democratic Rep. Joe Sam Queen and his Republican challenger Mike Clampitt took a more substantial purview of their decade-long feud.

Republican Mike Clampitt and Democrat Rep. Joe Sam Queen, candidates for the North Carolina House of Representative District 119, will appear at a virtual town hall hosted by The Smoky Mountain News and Blue Ridge Public Radio.

As the greatest public health crisis in more than a hundred years continues to ravage both the physical and fiscal health of the world, the nation and the state of North Carolina, a group of 15 Democratic candidates is calling for the immediate expansion of Medicaid.

It looks like one of North Carolina’s longest-running political feuds will go another round. 

Over the past decade or so, there’s been only one serious candidate willing or able to run for the District 119 House seat currently occupied by Waynesville Democrat Joe Sam Queen. 

For the tenth time in his long history of public service, Waynesville Democrat Joe Sam Queen announced his intent to represent his home county of Haywood in the North Carolina General Assembly. 

When North Carolina House District 119 voters get their ballots a little over a year from now, they’ll likely see two very familiar names.