Blue Ridge Public Radio and Smoky Mountain News to Host NC-11 Candidate Forum on Aug. 31st

Candidates for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District seat — Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Libertarian David Coatney and Republican Chuck Edwards David Coatney — have been invited to appear at a joint forum hosted by two of the 11th Congressional District’s largest independent media outlets.

On the evening of Wednesday, August 31, a diverse panel of guests will join Blue Ridge Public Radio Regional Reporter Lilly Knoepp and Smoky Mountain News Politics Editor Cory Vaillancourt for the of “Best in the West: North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District forum.”

This is the second installment of the ‘Best in the West’ debate.

Questions will come from Dr. Edward Lopez, director of Western Carolina University’s Center for the Study of Free Enterprise; Richard G. Sneed, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; Dewana Little, executive director of YMI Cultural Center; and Susan Mim, CEO of Dogwood Health Trust.

The event will be from 7 PM to 9 PM, broadcast live on Blue Ridge Public Radio as well as at BPR.org and livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube.

Blue Ridge Public Radio serves more than 400,000 people in 13 counties with 20 frequencies across the region for our two program services, BPR News and BPR Classic. Listeners can also find BPR programming on BPR.org, across social media and on the BPR and NPR One apps.

Smoky Mountain News prints 16,000 newspapers a week to serve all of Western North Carolina, including four core counties and the Qualla Boundary. SMN daily news can also be found online at smokymountainnews.com or across social media platforms.

Beach-Ferrara and Coatney have both confirmed their appearances.