Xpress Primary Voter Guide Arrives Aggregating Buncombe County Candidate Responses

The 2026 Xpress Primary Voter Guide has arrived," Mountain Xpress announced, running the guide in two parts in its Feb. 11 and Feb. 18 issues and aggregating candidate responses and local issue positions for Buncombe County races. Xpress is focused on local races specific to Buncombe County, and the publisher says readers can find candidate responses linked within the guide.

The largest contest is Asheville City Council, where 20 candidates are on the ballot and only six will advance to compete for three open seats in the November general election. Mountain Xpress identifies that field as the biggest race in terms of voter choices, signaling a crowded primary that will winnow to half a dozen nominees ahead of November.

Federal and county contests in the guide include the U.S. House District 11 primary, where current U.S. 11 Rep. Chuck Edwards faces a Republican primary challenger, Adam Smith, while five Democratic candidates are vying for their party’s nomination. The race for Buncombe County district attorney does not include the incumbent, Todd Williams, who announced last year he is not seeking a fourth term. In addition to those campaigns, the guide covers Buncombe County Board of Commissioners District 2, the Buncombe County sheriff’s race, and N.C. District Court Judge District 40, Seat 3.

Mountain Xpress provided the voting schedule voters should use: early voting ran Thursday, Feb. 12 through Saturday, Feb. 28, with polls open 8 a.m.-7:30 p.m. on weekdays. Weekend early voting hours were Feb. 21, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., and Feb. 28, 8 a.m.-3 p.m., with Sunday early voting only on Feb. 22, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. The publisher's advertisement notice added that the last day to request an absentee ballot was Tuesday, February 17. Primary Election Day is Tuesday, March 3, with polls open 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m., and anyone in line by 7:30 p.m. will have the chance to vote.

Responses from candidates for each contested primary election race are available at the pages linked below in the Mountain Xpress guide, which the publisher ran across its two February issues. The excerpts provided do not list every candidate name on those response pages, so the guide functions as the central aggregator for candidate positions in the contests named.

Organizations or campaigns seeking to reserve ad space in the voter guide were supplied publisher contact details and rates: phone 828-251-1333 x 1 and advertise@mountainx.com, with a space guarantee deadline of Feb. 4. Ad rates listed were 1/8 Page VERTICAL $218, 1/4 Page VERTICAL $384, 1/2 Page VERTICAL $704, and Full Page $1280; the ad copy states ads include Full Process Color and limited complimentary design services.

With early voting concluded Feb. 28 and the guide’s two-part run complete, Buncombe County voters head to the polls Tuesday, March 3 to decide nominees in the races outlined in Mountain Xpress’s voter guide.