Tightly contested Western HD 115 features Democratic incumbent Ager, GOP businesswoman Evans

N.C. House District 115 (Buncombe County).

• Amy Evans. Republican. Education: Business and management degree, Connecticut College. Career highlights: Served as an ambassador for the Coast Guard for 16 years; senior executive assistant to the CEO of Berg Electronics; corporate assistant to the president of Baxter Healthcare International. Occupation: Retired.

• John Ager (two-term incumbent). Democrat. Education: Teachers’ certificate from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Occupation: Farmer and manager of an event venue. Career highlights: Teacher, past manager of Hickory Nut Gap Farm.

Republican candidate Amy Evans aims to take back a seat Democrats took from Republicans in 2008.

The race between Evans and Democratic incumbent John Ager is listed as competitive by the N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation, which closely tracks elections. Evans and Ager share a common cause in education: Both support improving rural education, investing in community colleges, and raising teachers’ pay.

This is Evans’ first race, and she is promising to focus on deregulating small businesses and improving vocational education. Ager names education, the environment, and the integrity of the General Assembly as his biggest concerns.

“I’m not a politician. I’m a businesswoman. I see everything through the lens of, How can we make this better?” Evans said. “We need more jobs, and we need better education for our young people in order to promise them a better future here.”

Ager blames the Republicans for sidelining public education in policy debates and budgeting. Although Ager opposes the Opportunity Scholarship Program and questions the management of charter schools, he “very much loves” the charter school his grandchildren attend.

“I consider charter schools public schools,” Ager said. “I’m all for school choice. I used to be a teacher. I just want the schools our N.C. students are choosing to be good schools with some accountability.”

Evans says she will tackle overregulation to help small businesses and create jobs.  

“We have a problem here. Everything is in tourism, tourism, tourism. And after a while, that sucks the life out of communities,” Evans said. “I’m a corporate person, so I think we need good jobs, not just blue-collar jobs.”

Ager said he is sympathetic to deregulation but calls for a balance between providing oversight and limiting market access. He supported hemp legalization and co-sponsored bills to legalize marijuana.

“I’m a farmer, and I’d like to find ways to encourage young farmers,” Ager said. “Access to farming is difficult, land is expensive, equipment is expensive, our farmer population is aging out, and we have lots of young entrepreneurial farmers who want to get in.”

Both candidates worry about the economic fallout from the sale of Mission Hospital, the region’s largest employer, to Hospital Corporation of America, a for-profit company.

“It has people worried about what is going to happen. They are a huge employer — there are no CEOs here, only surgeons,” Evans said. “We are all waiting and hoping it does not fail because, if it does, it will have a huge negative impact on our economy here.”

“I think it is a good thing, it is just a little bit sad to be taken over by a big multinational corporation when you are used to having a local health-care system,” Ager said. “But I think it is inevitable.”

Evans thinks the proposed constitutional amendments are “common sense and practical.” Ager was suspicious of the amendments and the “integrity of the General Assembly itself.” He supports the creation of a bipartisan redistricting committee, and said he hopes to examine redistricting in Asheville which, he said, was “pushed down our throats by Raleigh.”

Both Evans and Ager are gun owners. Ager doesn’t belong to the National Rifle Association, though Evans occasionally wears a NRA bracelet and visits gun shows.

Evans said she supports President Trump, a “great sinner” who is nevertheless helping the country. Ager called his tariffs a “total disaster.”

Ager said he might support a carbon tax to help the environment.

“I can’t believe that the state of North Carolina is not facing up to the reality of climate change,” Ager said. “I think that’s our World War III, to be honest.”