Asheville City Councilman Bothwell announces bid for WNC congressional seat

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell announced his intention to run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in Western North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District on Saturday, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times. That seat is now held by U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler.

Here’s Bothwell’s announcement:

I herewith declare my candidacy for the United States Congress in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. This decision was jump-started by recent events in both the Buncombe County Democratic Party and Congress.

The election is more than 18 months away, but it will take that kind of time to build a viable grass-roots campaign across the 13 counties of Western North Carolina. Position statements, organizing information, and all the rest will be posted here in coming days. A booklet version of the platform should be available for distribution in about two months.

More from his page on Facebook:

This whole campaign thing got ahead of me because of the nomination for Buncombe Dem Party Chair last week. When I was very proactively recruited, I assented, but spent the next several days making a decision I had intended to put off till late summer. That led to complete rethinking of the original thought, which involved a primary race. I’ve decided to skip the primary.