AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n
Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n The public added a new section to Rep. Chuck Edwards\u2019 Wikipedia entry that one might expect to see on one of his predecessors\u2019 pages: \u201cControversies.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Read more Elliott Avent\u2019s coaching career ends on rare call in NC State baseball loss<\/a><\/p>\n Constituents of Edwards, 65, a Republican from Flat Rock, had reason to think he would bring to his congressional office a level of professionalism that had been lacking. He had a track record of government service and took steps to be in a position to help constituents.<\/p>\n But news leaked in April \u2014 and soon was confirmed \u2014 that Edwards faces an investigation<\/a> by the House Committee on Ethics on whether he created a hostile work environment and sexually harassed women on his staff.<\/p>\n The Edwards news forms a pattern of three consecutive representatives from the same region whose alleged actions drew negative headlines.<\/p>\n But Edwards was supposed to be different.<\/p>\n Internet archives capture<\/a> how Edwards explained his childhood when he first ran for office.<\/p>\n He grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. He was born in Waynesville, 30 miles southwest of Asheville, and moved to Hendersonville when he was 12.<\/p>\n His mother was a waitress, his father a truck driver, his family Christian, and he said he wouldn\u2019t realize their financial hardships until later in life.<\/p>\n Edwards attended West Henderson High School, where he wrestled and was on the football team.<\/p>\n He dreamed of becoming a forest ranger, a wildlife enforcement officer or serving in forest management.<\/p>\n But at 16, the trajectory of Edwards\u2019 life changed when he worked the grill at a local McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n Within three years, Edwards was encouraged to join McDonald\u2019s corporate management team. He did, and also took part-time classes for business at Blue Ridge Community College.<\/p>\n Eight years later, he was promoted to technology coordinator over 150 of the company\u2019s restaurants and in 1989, promoted again to oversee the total budget, sales development and operations for the Western North Carolina and Spartanburg, South Carolina, restaurants.<\/p>\n He continued to work his way up in the company, eventually helping to open more than 100 franchises.<\/p>\n And then, in 1998, he opened his own franchise in Hendersonville.<\/p>\n As he expanded the franchises he personally owned, he also served on boards and organizations, including the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce, the Henderson Rotary Club, Boy Scouts of America, the Franchisee Government Relations Committee, Hendersonville\u2019s Partners for Economic Progress and the Community Foundation of Henderson County.<\/p>\n He also served on government boards and committees including the City of Hendersonville Business Advisory Committee and the Henderson County Planning Board.<\/p>\n So when Sen. Tom Apodaca, a powerful Republican lawmaker from Hendersonville who oversaw the Rules Committee, chose to step down early in July 2016, he endorsed Edwards for the role.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it will be good for Chuck Edwards,\u201d Apodaca told the Hendersonville Lightning<\/a>. \u201cI hope the executive committee appoints him. He\u2019ll be able to get to know the legislature. The way he studies and the questions he asks he\u2019ll keep the staff very busy.\u201d<\/p>\n Apodaca did not respond to a request for comment from McClatchy for this article.<\/p>\n Under North Carolina state law, when a vacancy occurs in the state Senate, the local executive committee of the political party that the senator was affiliated with chooses someone to recommend to the governor to replace him or her.<\/p>\n At the time, Pat McCrory, a Republican from Charlotte, served as governor and took the local party up on their recommendation that Edwards fill Apodaca\u2019s vacancy. It was August 2016, and this gave Edwards the upper hand, as the incumbent, in the upcoming election and allowed Apodaca to begin his cooling-off period to become a lobbyist by the start of the next session.<\/p>\n In the Senate, Edwards served on 17 committees and chaired five<\/a>. He prioritized policies on topics like immigration, gun rights and small businesses.<\/p>\n His successes in the Senate led to rumors that he might succeed Rep. Mark Meadows in Congress. Meadows, a Republican from Cashiers, had represented the 11th Congressional District since 2013.<\/p>\n In Meadows\u2019 fourth term, he announced he would not seek reelection and would resign in March 2020 to become President Donald Trump\u2019s chief of staff.<\/a><\/p>\n Political watchers wondered if Edwards would run for Meadows\u2019 vacant seat. But having just begun his third term, Edwards opted against it, and Madison Cawthorn, a then-25-year-old from Hendersonville, won the seat.<\/p>\n Quickly in Cawthorn\u2019s first term, he proved inexperienced.<\/p>\n First, he told lawmakers he was building a staff focused on communications over legislation, Time Magazine reported then.<\/a><\/p>\n Then he found himself mired in a series of scandals he couldn\u2019t overcome, including bringing a weapon to an airport and a school property, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy \u201ca thug\u201d<\/a> and praising Putin.<\/p>\n Cawthorn\u2019s actions and statements drew the ire of Sen. Thom Tilllis, and he began actively campaigning against the Western North Carolina congressman.<\/p>\n In November 2021, Edwards announced he would run against Cawthorn and Tillis successfully threw his support behind him.<\/p>\n Read more UNC baseball one win away from Super Regionals with victory over ECU<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cRepublicans chose Chuck Edwards tonight because he is the embodiment of mountain values who will fight for them every single day in Congress with honor and integrity,\u201d Tillis wrote<\/a> in a news release following Edwards\u2019 win.<\/a><\/p>\n Tillis did not respond to a request for comment sent to his team on what stood out to him about Edwards.<\/p>\n By November, Edwards faced Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara to replace Cawthorn in Congress. The district, at the time, leaned Republican by double digits. But with Asheville, a heavily Democratic area, in the middle of the district, a win for Edwards wasn\u2019t a sure bet.<\/p>\n But he pulled it off.<\/p>\n On Jan. 7, 2023, Edwards was sworn into Congress.<\/a><\/p>\n He staffed his office with a chief of staff and legislative director who had 40 years of Capitol Hill experience between them.<\/p>\n He turned the office\u2019s focus back to constituent services and staffed the district offices with people who knew the region.<\/p>\n Before being officially sworn in, Edwards would vote 15 times before Republicans<\/a> would settle on Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, as the House speaker.<\/p>\n By October, it would take just one vote to oust him.<\/a><\/p>\n Members would then learn what would happen when a speaker is ousted, a historic first.<\/p>\n Rep. Patrick McHenry,<\/a> a Republican from Lincoln County, would serve as interim speaker<\/a> and lead a three-week process to select Rep. Mike Johnson<\/a>, a Republican from Louisiana, as speaker.<\/p>\n In 2024, Edwards found himself in trouble for using official congressional mail, known as franking, to campaign against President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n In April 2024, the House Communications Standards Commission said it would issue unspecified sanctions against Edwards for violating House communications rules.<\/p>\n Edwards defended himself, at the time, saying<\/a>, \u201cI did not go to Washington to make nice with Joe Biden, so while I\u2019ll do a better job of crossing my \u2018i\u2019s and dotting my \u2018t\u2019s, I will not be robbed of my First Amendment rights by this hyper-partisan complaint, nor deterred from communicating with my constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n A year later, McClatchy began looking into large staff turnover in Edwards\u2019 office<\/a>. The chief of staff and legislative director left.<\/p>\n The history of Edwards\u2019 staff changes can be found both on Legistorm, a subscription service, and Linkedin.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing into my second term, I decided to restructure the team to meet the current needs of Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene and with my new leadership role on the House Appropriations Committee,\u201d Edwards told McClatchy in a written statement April 28, 2025.<\/p>\n Helene struck Western North Carolina in September 2024, causing widespread damage and at least 108 deaths. Edwards\u2019 constituents are still digging out of the damage and rebuilding.<\/p>\n In May 2025, Edwards appeared at a Rotary Club meeting in Asheville, scheduled to speak on Helene relief.<\/p>\n But a Rotarian who attended the event said<\/a> that his speech included defending Trump\u2019s administration, tariffs and cuts to federal agencies. The man, Guy Gooder, told McClatchy at the time that Edwards had insulted Rotarians\u2019 intelligence and the programs they partner with.<\/p>\n Gooder told McClatchy that as Edwards walked to the back of the room, another Rotarian muttered that his speech was \u201ca load of B.S.\u201d In response, Edwards struck the man with a clipboard, said Gooder, who heard but did not see the incident.<\/p>\n Asheville Police confirmed<\/a> they were called to a downtown hotel to investigate a report of a disturbance by a member of Congress, but charges were not filed.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n As months passed, and Edwards continued to navigate Helene relief, his staff continued to leave his office. The job of legislative director turned over a second time and was replaced. A deputy chief of staff left, and Legistorm does not show a replacement.<\/p>\n Edwards has retained two employees for the entirety of his two terms in office: his district director and his senior caseworker.<\/p>\n Now Edwards is under investigation for how he treated his staff.<\/p>\n Multiple news outlets including Axios<\/a> and NOTUS<\/a> reported that Edwards is accused of traveling to Las Vegas with an employee 40 years his junior; sending her a three-page letter saying she had \u201cwritten a complex chapter in my heart\u201d and a puzzle she had to complete to invite her to an Adam Sandler comedy show; and buying one employee jewelry and another a designer bag.<\/p>\n Edwards is one of several members of Congress being investigated over allegations of sexual harassment of staff. Those included Rep. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez, who both resigned from office.<\/p>\n On April 20, prior to its investigation of Edwards, the ethics committee released a list of 28 members the committee has investigated<\/a> since 1979 for sexual misconduct. Three days later, NOTUS reported and McClatchy confirmed that the committee had also investigated Democratic Rep. Alma Adams of Charlotte<\/a> over a relationship with a staffer; Adams said the investigation found no violations and was closed.<\/p>\n The investigation into Edwards caused the University of Virginia\u2019s Center for Politics to change the 11th Congressional District ranking from \u201clikely Republican\u201d to the more narrowly divided \u201cleans Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n Edwards faces Jamie Ager, a Democrat from Fairview and a fourth-generation farmer whose brother, father and grandfather served in politics.<\/p>\n