Asheville council primary: Incumbents Roney and Turner win night, Frazier close behind
ASHEVILLE - Six City Council candidates will move forward from a seven-way nonpartisan primary, with incumbents Kim Roney and Sage Turner leading the way with 20.24% and 18.8% of the vote, respectively.
Just behind is downtown business owner Kevan Frazier, with 16.61%, and Bo Hess, with 14.01% of the vote, according to preliminary election results.
Also in the running is Tod Leaven and CJ Domingo.
These six candidates will move on to the November general election to vie for the three open seats. Results are unofficial until certified on March 15.
Though technically eight candidates were on the ballot, Taylon Breeden, announced she was withdrawing from the race in a Feb. 20 Facebook post, attributing the decision to the "struggle to find long term affordable housing within the city." She clinched only 3.82% of the vote.
City Council results:
Kim Roney: 20.24%
Sage Turner: 18.80%
Kevan Frazier: 16.61%
Bo Hess: 14.01%
Tod Leaven: 12.22%
CJ Domingo: 7.51%
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Roney, 42, a music educator and small business owner, was first elected to City Council in 2020. She made an unsuccessful bid for the mayoral seat in 2022. Affordability, public safety and climate and neighborhood resiliency are among top priorities in her run for reelection.
Of the night's win, she said, it tells her that talking about affordability, demanding behavioral health responses for people in crisis, and doing the work to "truly serve the people who are most vulnerable in our community, to improve quality of life for all of us, is top of mind."
"And people showed up to support that work," Roney told the Citizen Times at a slowly emptying Buncombe County Democratic Party in the Biltmore Village Hi-Wire Brewing. She spent most of the evening at Buncombe County District 1 candidate Jennifer Horton's election party, watching results roll in.
Affordability is more than affordable housing, she said: it's utility bills, its transportation, it's the burden of moving further and further away from work and access to resources.
“We want to do things better. Things are not going well right now for so many people that are in crisis mode, and I know that my neighbors care," she said.
“I think this next part of the year is about articulating not just the plan that elected officials have, but how our community can be involved in the process and hold us accountable to get the work done."
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Similarly, Turner, 45, also was elected to council in 2020. She's a finance and project manager and has championed housing efforts during her time on a council, a central tenet of her campaign, along with public safety and core city services.
After results were in, Turner thanked voters in a Facebook post.
"Let's talk bonds, pools, schools, housing, BID, tourism, missing middle, to name a few," Turner wrote.
"It's an honor to do this work and I appreciate your continued support. Thank you to the many candidates across the city and region that offer to step up in this way and do the hard, good work of building a stronger community together. And to the campaign helpers, families, and organizers, thank you for all that you do to make it possible."
Though both Turner and Roney are running for reelection, the third seat belongs to Vice Mayor Sandra Kilgore, who announced she would not be running again.
Behind the incumbents is Frazier, 53, who works for Western Carolina University as a director of programs on the Biltmore Park instructional site. He is also an owner of Well Played Board Game Café, a downtown board game-centric bar and restaurant.
"I'm very excited, I'm very thankful that what I had to say resonated with folks and I appreciate them coming out to the polls to vote," Frazier told the Citizen Times after giving a brief speech to those assembled for the Democratic party.
"My message is about collaboration, and it's about working together and coming together, because we've got big issues we're dealing with in Asheville, and if we don't come together to do that work, they're just going to sit there."
What are the issues? Frazier said it's clear: public safety, housing, homelessness, equity and the environment.
"Those came up over and over," he said. As a downtown business owner, and someone who lives downtown, "we want our downtown to be the core of a successful community. If we don't have a good, solid safe downtown, that's going to ripple through the rest of our city."
Not all of the response should fall to Asheville police, he said, citing work of the Buncombe County community paramedics, Asheville Fire Department's community responders and an ongoing partnership between APD and the Buncombe County Sheriff's Department.
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Hess, 35, a clinical social worker and therapist, also ran in the 2022 Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional District seat. He was outpaced in a crowded field by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, a current Buncombe County commissioner.
"I'm just excited to get out there and start working for the community," Hess said after the night's results came in. During his time at the polls, affordability, housing and homelessness were the top issues on people's minds.
As a clinical addiction specialist, he felt well positioned to address concerns around homelessness and mental health crises. "It's all hands on deck now," he said.
Leaven, 48, is a veterans law attorney, and CJ Domingo, 36, is an operations supervisor at a financial institution, born and raised in Asheville.
Core city services are at the center of Leaven's campaign, he said, from sidewalks and parking decks, to police and beloved community pools.
"The main job of any city council is to provide public services. Your public safety, your parking, your streets, your water," he said. From a public safety perspective, he's calling for higher pay for police and a fully-staffed department.
In an 11 p.m. phone call, Domingo said he was honored the people of Asheville want to hear more from him.
From voters, he heard concerns around infrastructure, lack of communication with council and "fears that they're getting left behind by the way that the city is changing."
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Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email [email protected] or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: 6 Asheville City Council candidates advance to general election
