Democrat Hayden Rogers, the longtime chief of staff to Rep. Heath Shuler, announced Feb. 8 that he plans to run for congress, hoping to gain the 11th District seat currently held by his boss. The announcement comes less than a week after Shuler announced his plans to retire after his current term ends in January.
Last year, Republican leaders in the N.C. General Assembly drew most of Buncombe County’s Democratic voters out of the 11th District, hurting the chances of any Democrat winning election. The new 11th District stretches from western Buncombe County to the western tip of the state. Rogers will be up against Asheville City Council member Cecil Bothwell in the May 8 Democratic primary. A group of eight Republicans are also fighting to represent their party in the November election.
Here’s the full announcement from Rogers:
Hayden Rogers Announces Candidacy for Congress
Former Shuler Chief of Staff to Seek 11th District Seat
Brasstown, NC –Hayden Rogers, a Robbinsville native and longtime chief of staff to Congressman Heath Shuler, announced his candidacy for Congress today for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District.
“It has truly been an honor to work on behalf of Western North Carolina alongside Congressman Shuler for the past six years. As a proud North Carolinian, I am humbled to have the opportunity to continue fighting for the families across the 11th District,” Rogers said. “I have seen first-hand how broken the political process can be in Washington. The divisive partisan gamesmanship does nothing to meet the challenges before us as a nation. Future generations of Americans are depending on us to face those challenges sincerely and directly. I will work across the aisle and with all honest people to solve them.”
Prior to entering public service Rogers was a small business owner.
“I know what it means to create jobs, because I have done it,” Rogers continued. “I know the struggles faced by small business owners, because I have lived them. As a member of Congress I will work tirelessly to eliminate unnecessary and burdensome regulations that stifle small business development. We must foster a climate that encourages small businesses to thrive, grow, and create jobs.”
“We must also continue standing up against the unfair trade agreements that have shipped thousands of our jobs overseas,” Rogers added. “American workers will out-produce, out-compete, and out-innovate anyone in the world on a level playing field.”
Rogers is a graduate of Robbinsville High School and Princeton University. He resides in Brasstown with his wife, Donna Tipton-Rogers, and their two daughters, Torin (8) and Lochlan (6). They attend Little Brasstown Baptist Church.
Rogers also serves on the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
He will conduct a formal announcement tour of the 11th District after filing.
I hope that we are done with the House of Schuler and his apprentice, a guilty Blue Dog by association. Schuler voted against health care for babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, women, men, the aged the working poor, the homeless. Princton grads and elite insiders have little if anything to offer in the way of solutions for us at the pedestrian level here in Asheville.
Needed is someone that speaks Truth to power, someone who his homegrown right here in Asheville, someone that has a demonstrated record of leadership experience locally. Someone that is a real, authentic DEMOCRAT from the HEART.
This is old wine in a new bottle. ” Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!” I will never in this lifetime vote for anyone associated with Schuler’s staff. A new day in a new district, without the taint of having been trained by tea party sell out . Schuler and company stood for nothing , therefore they fell for everything.
Go away, just go away, as this candidate’s arrival on the scene is just another WASP Democratic Men’s Club pretty boy from out of town with little if any existential experience understanding the present acute realities of Asheville and Buncombe County, as being a future economic and political powerhouse for Western North Carolina, which we have historically claimed.
Heath Schuler came and went with no
impact, no legacy, just the knowledge that he tried to shepard everyone’s healthcare back to the days of pre Great Society Appalachia, was in the pocket of the 1%, and was corrupted and totally compromised by a broken system in Congress. Thanks be that Schuler and company are reaping full measure what they have sown; History will pass the final assessment of the magnitude of Heath Schuler’s failure to relate to or advocate for the weakest or the poorest of his constituents. So be it.
Michael DeBruhl Blankenship USMC Retired
The Congressman is Heath Shuler. Your post would be more effective if you at least spelled his name correctly.
That seems like a really trivial reason to discount a very long list of complaints.
Isn’t the article about Hayden Rogers? Not Congressman Shuler. Sorry maybe I missed the point of the article. Congressman Shuler isn’t running-complain all you want but he is leaving office. I’m just saying if you are going to bash him at least spell his name correctly.