ASHEVILLE — For some Buncombe County Democrats, the Sept. 10 presidential debate felt like the first of this year’s election season, even though it was actually the second.
In July, when Vice President Kamala Harris announced her intention to replace President Joe Biden as the leader of the Democratic ticket, energy among Democrats across the country seemed to skyrocket. Eight weeks later, when more than 100 supporters showed up at the party’s county headquarters in East Asheville to watch their new candidate debate former President Donald Trump, the excitement was still palpable.
“The energy is off the charts,” Buncombe County Commissioner Martin Moore said in an interview with the Citizen Times on Sept. 10, just before the debate began. Moore, who is running for a seat on the N.C. Court of Appeals, said the atmosphere reminded him of 2008, when Barack Obama first ran for president.
In a brief address before the debate, Caleb Rudow, the Democratic congressional candidate for North Carolina’s 11th District, asked everyone in attendance to savor the moment and take a deep breath. He ended his speech with high hopes for Harris.
“We still have a lot of work to do after that, but I think she’s going to beat the crap out of him tonight,” he said.
Several attendees wore T-shirts with Trump or Harris logos, while another supporter wore one with the name of Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. Before the debate, one woman drank from an insulated mug with a photo of Harris captioned, “Madam President.” Another woman knitted, while life-size cardboard figures of Biden and former presidents Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy covered a nearby wall.
Early in the evening, Doug Clark, 67, stood outside the party headquarters on Old Fairview Road directing traffic. Just before the debate, Clark, a retired toolmaker and chairman of Precinct 54.2, told the Citizen-Times that he expected a similar debate performance from Trump — “a lot of untruths, a lot of rule breaking, a lot of trash talk,” he said.
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During the first half of the debate, which was projected onto one of the basement walls of the headquarters, there was much laughter, smiles and several loud reactions to comments Trump made during the debate, including when he called Harris a Marxist. At the same time, some supporters played debate bingo, hoping that Trump would “mispronounce Kamala.”
In an interview with the Citizen-Times on September 11, Clark said he didn’t think the debate degenerated into ugly rhetoric. He thought Trump was probably coached to tone down the personal attacks.
‘Not impressed from either side’
Less than 10 miles away, at the Buncombe County GOP headquarters in West Asheville, about 25 people gathered to watch the debate on a small flat-screen TV mounted on a bright red wall. They also played bingo, trying to mark spots where words and phrases like “guns,” “tariff” and “trans rights” were uttered. Just before 10 p.m., one winner stepped forward in a long red dress. She won a bottle of wine and a “Never Surrender” sign with Trump’s face on it in the yard.
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The reaction to the debate at GOP headquarters was more subdued. There were lone laughs, quiet applause, a few muffled coughs or nods of agreement in response to comments from Trump and Harris, such as when Trump said crime was “through the roof.”
TJ Martin, a registered Republican from East Asheville, watched the debate in the middle of the crowd with a cowboy hat on his knee. Midway through the debate, he told the Citizen Times that he was surprised at how well Harris did and that he believed she may have been “lubricated,” suggesting she had been given questions for the debate in advance. He also said that both Trump and Harris strayed from the topic.
“I think the candidates are unfortunately everywhere,” Martin said.
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Andy Keith, an independent voter who watched the debate at GOP headquarters, told the Citizen Times on Sept. 10 that former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent endorsement has bolstered his support for Trump. Keith, who said he was in his late 40s and worked in residential construction, told the Citizen Times he was a strong supporter of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
A short time later, a Citizen-Times reporter and photographer were asked to leave the GOP headquarters by one of those present.
Reached by phone on September 11, Keith said he was “not impressed with either side,” though he felt the fact-checking of the candidates’ statements was biased in Harris’s favor and that she was given more free rein by debate moderators.
Martin told the Citizen Times on September 11 that he thought the moderators had done a “pretty good job” and that Trump’s debate performance was not his best.
“I think she knew the questions,” Martin said of Harris. “I’ve never seen her communicate at that level.”
‘Are you okay?’
Julie Weatherly, 80, a Harris supporter who attended the Democratic viewing party, told the Citizen Times on Sept. 11 that she was pleased with Harris’ performance. “She destroyed Trump, absolutely destroyed him,” Weatherly said.
Chris Cooper, a professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University and author of the forthcoming book “Anatomy of a Purple State: A North Carolina Politics Primer,” told the Citizen Times on Sept. 11 that Harris clearly outperformed Trump and that Harris in particular exceeded expectations.
“This was, in many ways, her coming out party to a lot of voters, and she performed well,” Cooper said. “She wasn’t heavy on policy details, but she certainly presented herself as competent and informed.”
In an interview on Sept. 11, Clark, the precinct chairman, said he also noticed that Harris was not specific about policy proposals, but he attributed that to her short time as a candidate. He expects to hear more from Harris on policy, particularly economic policy, when the next debate takes place.
During her closing statement on September 10, Harris said that as a prosecutor, she did not ask victims or witnesses about their party affiliation. Instead, she asked if they were okay.
When asked the same question by the Citizen Times on September 10, Clark said he measures the sense of security he feels now by “the hope that we don’t wake up to a dictator,” referring to Trump’s possible re-election in November.
“What we have is working,” Clark said. “We just need to get the hate and division out of the system.”
On the Republican side, Martin told the Citizen Times it wasn’t even a fair question.
“It’s either wealth or poverty,” Martin said. “Pick one.”
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Jacob Biba is the county watchdog reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Reach him at jbiba@citizentimes.com.
This article originally appeared in Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe County Dems, GOP react to Harris-Trump presidential debate
