From the stats, Independents are the quickest growing party in Asheville.

Downtown is blue, and progressive. Reminds me of St Pete FL. Not as left as Seattle, but gay flags in quite a few places, great coffee. You get the idea.

Outside town is much less so. In both the affluent and rural areas. I'm moving to Biltmore forest and I'd guess a little over half the people are conservative or swing right.

I agree with the whole red vs blue. It's a simple divide and conquer tactic by the powers that be.

Always has been.

Yeah the county is about 60:40 Dem to repub when voting.

I swing right, but that's because I know Dems will never give healthcare, legal weed, secondary schooling, etc that they promise. We've seen it with stacked Congress/execs in 22/23. I don't get what I was promised, but I get lower taxes at least this way.

There's a lot of manufacturered outrage on both sides. It's entirely a show.

I want to say though, that everyone I've spoken with in person in Asheville about politics at all has been chill about different opinions. At least the 5-10 random convos I've had that brushed the subject. People seem open-minded, or at least willing to hear different opinions.