Asheville Mayor featured in new TV ad highlighting Helene response
Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer is featured in a new TV ad highlighting HCA Healthcare’s efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. She highlights that HCA continued to treat everyone who walked through its doors, providing lifesaving care in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
The ad appears to be running on WLOS and effectively provides the mayor free advertising ahead of her eventual reelection campaign, which will likely be defined by Helene recovery.
Manheimer secured her third term in 2022 and will likely stand for reelection in 2026.
Tim’s Take: The ad shows how local leaders will claim that they were doing the best they could under extreme circumstances. This approach allows local Democrats to distance themselves from the Biden administration, which faced substantial criticism for a slow, politically motivated response. In previous decades, Mountain Democrats won elections by distancing themselves from the national party; this move by the Asheville mayor shows how local leaders follow a similar path of separating their efforts for the community from the conversation in Washington. Republicans across Western North Carolina can utilize this playbook as well, given their record of helping the region. Ceding this ground to the Democrats would be a misstep.
