For the first time in 13 years, Asheville is getting a new mayor. Council member Kim Roney won her rematch against incumbent Esther Manheimer by roughly 7,000 votes, according to unofficial results.
The Grey Eagle, the music venue where Roney held a watch party on Tuesday night, erupted in applause after Manheimer called to concede around 9 p.m. Under a canopy of twinkly lights, purple streamers and a glimmering disco ball, Roney took the stage.
“Look at all the amazing things we can do together,” she said, before breaking into a call-and-response chorus with the crowd. Together, the room chanted: “Ain't no power like the power of the people, cause the power of the people don't stop.”
Roney ran a grassroots campaign, focusing on greater transparency in government and making Asheville more affordable. Most of the individual donations she received were less than $200 and her campaign had no contributions from Political Action Committees, according to campaign finance reports.
Her signature hand-painted campaign signs, made from old pallets, could be seen all over town in the weeks leading up to the election and were also placed on stage at The Grey Eagle on Tuesday night.
“Tonight is the finale of a season of incredible work,” Roney said. “We knocked 11,000 doors. Now we have to deliver on the promise to make the change we deserve.”
‘We deserve better’
In an interview with BPR, Roney said she made extra efforts to reach out to places in East Asheville, South Asheville, “Far West” Asheville and Asheville’s legacy Black neighborhoods. During that outreach, she said she frequently heard that people didn’t feel “heard” or “well represented.”
“People feel like, especially post-Helene, we don't want to just go back to extractive tourism. We want more balance,” she said. “And so across the whole city, whether you have been born and raised here or you just moved here, folks were getting the same impression that we deserve better.”
One immediate change Roney said she would like to incorporate into her new role is a regular press conference, modeled off her social media “Monday Minute” series, where she explains topics and policies that are actively under discussion at city council and at other subcommittees and commissions.
“A lot of the conversation this year has been around collaboration and what I think hasn't been valued enough is the opportunity to collaborate with the people who live and work in Asheville,” she said. “By having open meetings and by inviting people to understand the story of our city better, then they can participate more fully.”
In an Oct. 7 interview with BPR, Roney pointed to transit, public safety and housing as crucial parts of her platform. She wants to make Asheville’s bus system more affordable and functional, and as part of that mission, has pushed for the city and county to form a regional transit system.
Roney has also long been critical about policies and funding that expand the power of the Asheville Police Department and wants to see more funding allocated towards incorporating mental health professionals into the city’s emergency response team.
A “blue wave” of new leadership in North Carolina
When Roney is sworn in at the Dec. 8 Asheville City Council meeting, she will be joined by one new council member, Drew Ball, the top vote-getter in the Council race.
Ball will transition out of his current role as District 3 Buncombe County commissioner, a position he earned two years ago through a special election after current Board Chair Amanda Edwards vacated the seat.
Incumbents Maggie Ullman and Antanette Mosley were also reelected on Tuesday night, with Jeffrey Burroughs, Keith Young and incumbent Sheneika Smith falling short in their respective bids. The two remaining council members are Sage Turner and Bo Hess, who both will serve through 2028.
This new council configuration will be tasked with steep challenges, including affordability issues, the city’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene, conflicting opinions on police surveillance and public safety, another challenging year of budget decisions and an underfunded public transit system.
The city is also working on rewriting the Unified Development Ordinance – the local rulebook that governs land use, zoning and property development. The goal is to make development more simple and streamlined, while encouraging solutions to the city’s ongoing affordable housing crisis.
Historically, council has been split on some decisions that have loosened zoning requirements. Ball and Ullman are supportive of moves that support denser development within city limits.
“Folks are coming here and we’ve got to plan for that growth. And if we don't, they're all going to move to the county,” Ball said. “We need them here in Asheville. We need to build up, not sprawl out, and we've got to be ready for the growth that's coming our way.”
Meanwhile, Roney and Mosley – while overall supportive of updating the ordinance – have both emphasized the importance of maintaining “neighborhood protections” with an anti-displacement strategy that specifically protects the city’s Black legacy neighborhoods.
“I want to make sure that the native voices aren’t lost in the shuffle,” Mosley told BPR while attending Roney’s watch party on Tuesday night. “I welcome everyone who moves to our town but I want to make sure that the culture that is Asheville remains the culture that is Asheville.”
Council members, and the mayor-elect, seem to be in agreement that Asheville’s policy goals will be strengthened by the “blue wave” of Democrats elected across North Carolina, including Senator-elect Roy Cooper and Representative-elect Jamie Ager. Democrats also claimed a majority in the state House, though they fell short of a majority in the state Senate.
“Our state legislators and senators that represent Asheville have done a relentlessly principled job for many, many years without being able to penetrate the political wall in Raleigh,” Ullman told BPR in a phone interview on Wednesday.
“And I'm really, really hopeful that we're going to be able to collaborate more effectively to benefit Asheville citizens with this blue tsunami.”
Roney echoed this sentiment in her victory speech on Tuesday night, declaring “we're going to get some stuff freaking done.”
Who fills Roney’s seat?
Appointing a new council member is one of the first major decisions the new Council will have to make.
Once Roney is sworn in as Mayor on Dec. 8, it effectively terminates her seat as council member. City law dictates that Council is responsible for appointing Roney’s replacement, who will serve out the remaining two years of her term on council.
City Attorney Brad Branham said there is no timeline for when that council member must be chosen, but the most likely scenario would be after Roney and Ball are sworn in.
"Since, for all intents and purposes, any new Council members would be sworn in at the same time as the Mayor, it would likely be the new Council who would be responsible for the new appointment. However, State legislation places no specific timeline for this task,” he told BPR in an email.
Council members have not yet indicated support for any particular candidate, but in a social media post, Hess indicated that one option would be to open up an application process through the City Clerk’s office. However, “an application process and deadline have not been announced,” he wrote.
