Buncombe County Commissioner Holly Jones files to run for Lieutenant Governor

HOLLY JONES FILES FOR LT. GOVERNOR

Raleigh, NC – Buncombe County Commissioner Holly Jones filed today to run for Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. Jones has served fourteen years in local government, seven on the Asheville City Council and seven on the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners. She decided to run after frustration with legislative overreach and policies that harm our public schools and universities.

“We need new voices who can bring broader experience to Raleigh,” Jones says. “I understand the impact state government has on local communities and local families. It’s time we had people respect local control and stand up to the partisan power grabs.”

Since Republicans took control of the General Assembly, they’ve redistricted the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, meddled in its airport business dealings, and even seized Asheville’s water supply, a multi-million-dollar asset. She also pointed to the General Assembly’s redistricting of Wake County and Greensboro election maps as well as changing nonpartisan elections to partisan ones in Lee County.

Jones also criticized state Republicans for budget cuts that pass expenses on to local governments. She called them unfunded mandates and said they hurt the state as a whole.

“Republicans in Raleigh have taken control from local communities with one hand and dumped expenses on us with the other,” Jones says. “Their cuts to public schools are forcing local governments to pick up their slack.”

Jones was elected to the Buncombe County Commission in 2008, and before that, spent seven years on the Asheville City Council, including two as Vice Mayor. During her tenure, Asheville and Buncombe County have seen impressive economic growth. In the last five years, Jones and her colleagues have created 2,860 jobs paying an average of $44,667 a year and Buncombe County has the lowest unemployment rate in the state. They have accomplished this while passing the state’s most ambitious carbon emission reduction goals and awarding teachers among the dozen highest salary supplements of any county.

Jones is the Director of Member Services for YWCA USA. Prior to that, she was the Director of the Southeast Region and Executive Director of the Asheville YWCA. She began her career as a public health educator in Durham after obtaining her B.A. in Public Policy Analysis and a Masters of Public Health from UNC-Chapel Hill. Jones also has a Masters in Divinity from Duke University and spent three years doing mission work.

Jones grew up in Wadesboro and Asheboro, the daughter of a public school teacher and a former state senator and county commissioner. For the last 19 years, Jones has made her home in Asheville, where she lives with her husband, Bob Falls, and their daughter, Gabriela.