Henry Mitchell elected Buncombe GOP chair

Today, March, 26, a divided Buncombe County Republican party elected Henry Mitchell to be its new chair.

The precinct delegates who gathered at the Buncombe County Courthouse for the party’s annual convention gave Mitchell 62 votes. Challenger Chris Eck got 51 votes.

An Asheville native, Mitchell is a longtime party activist who recently ran an unsuccessful campaign for Buncombe County School Board. He’s the president of the Oakley Neighborhood Association and has served as a substitute teacher at Reynolds High School for the last 10 years.

He succeeds Chad Nesbitt, who lead the party for the past year.

We’ll have a full report on the election and the convention in the March 30 issue of Xpress.


Above: Henry Mitchell. Below: Chris Eck.


Don Yelton described Nesbitt as “the eagle of the party” and presented him with this plaque to commemorate his service.

Photos by Jerry Nelson

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About Jake Frankel
Jake Frankel is an award-winning journalist who enjoys covering a wide range of topics, from politics and government to business, education and entertainment.

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25 thoughts on “Henry Mitchell elected Buncombe GOP chair

  1. Betty Cloer Wallace

    No, no, no, no, no!

    Be off wi’ ye!

    We’re only talking knitting!

  2. The Trolls Troll

    I would say Chad easily set the local GOP back 50 years or so. Does this mean he is going to reclaim leadership of the Carolina Stompers?

  3. Parker

    Ok, is it just me or are the MtnXpress photos for anything related to the BC GOP 10x larger than other stories? When are they going to stop inviting Jake to things?

    p.s. is that a dixie paper plate with an eagle super glued to it?

  4. 50cal

    Snipe, Snipe, Snipe … Confidence must not be very high in the progressive ranks if all you’ve got is dreary, boring, unimaginative snipping. But please! … do continue. … cause the comments just validate the old saying. … Never enter a battle of wits unarmed. (grin)

  5. Ashevegasjoe

    I look forward to Mr. Mitchell learning how to iron out the differences in his party, and his sweater

  6. Margaret Williams

    @Parker: With our current columnar website design, vertical photos take up a lot of real estate (it’s possible to reduce their size, but then you might not be able to see much detail).

  7. bill smith

    Typical liberal ad sweater attacks.

    (sorry, apparently sweater in latin is sweater. I was hoping for something more arcane.)

  8. When you give up a third of your screen real estate to ads, then it is to be expected that some layout weirdness would ensue.

    At least, I assume that’s what in the whitespace I see in my browser window. I don’t know what it is – it could be the ultimate question to life, the universe, and everything but if it is on a server listed in my etc/hosts file, then I don’t see it.

    (Note to Xpress – resize them down and add links to full size pictures)

  9. The photos look like they’ve been taken with a phone, they’re very tall and narrow. My first guess is that the photographer didn’t have a real camera with him or likes turning his camera sideways.

    What’s up with the desire to capture torsos? It doesn’t make sense. It would make sense if the photos were re-sized and placed side by side by side in the article. It would take up less real estate and avoid acres of white space.

  10. Ashevegasjoe

    All sweater jokes aside, who wouldn’t want a gigantic eagle wrapped in ol’ glory for the center of their mantle? Where do you get plaques like that? i gotta get me one

  11. invisiblefriend

    I think we are getting side tracked here. The sweater is very serious. Good decisions begin at the beginning of the day when you reach into your closet. If you screw that up that bad, then imagine what he will do in his new post.
    I think he is a cartoon character version of chad nesbitt. The more i think about it, this is going to be SERIOUSLY entertaining.

    And the dish with the flag and eagle….ok so you cant burn the flag, but you can eat it? and you cant hunt an eagle, but you can eat it?

    Twenty minutes into his tenure, and there has already been at least two major bad decisions in the room.

  12. Dionysis

    Chad Nesbitt was the “eagle of the Party?” Seems like ‘screech owl’ was closer to it.

  13. Betty Cloer Wallace

    No, no, no, no, no! So misunderstood!

    Yes, that dixie-plate flag-wrapped golden-eagle mantle-piece thingie is certainly an example of cheesy tea-party schlock art (they stole our flag and now they stole our eagle and dixie plates too)—-but such political schlock art is not the issue here.

    That large-scale argyle sweater is pure flair, and classical flair is always mighty fine, and beautiful! Please do not denigrate it!

    [Admittedly, though, in order to be perfectly beautiful, he should have steamed out that fold line down the middle.]

  14. invisiblefriend

    Whats with the greasy goatee trend, anyway? Three out of four. The guy without the goatee almost looks like hes giving a speech about his excuse about not having a goatee.

  15. bill smith

    @”Eagle of the Party”

    [i]”(the bald eagle) is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.”[/i]

    -Benjamin Franklin.

    Yep, sounds perfect. Chad is the Balding Eagle of the local GOP.

  16. Barry Summers

    I’m going to miss Nesbitt and his wacky shenanigans.

    Just wait til he runs for Mayor of Leicester.

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