Two Buncombe Dems Won’t Seek Reelection - TribPapers
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Two Buncombe Dems Won’t Seek Reelection

Rep. Brian Turner.

Asheville – A pair of veteran Buncombe County legislators have announced they won’t be seeking re-election in 2022.

Rep. Susan Fisher, who is currently serving as House minority whip, says she will step down on December 31 from the seat she has held since 2004. 

And Rep. Brian Turner, a four-term House veteran, issued a press release saying he would not run for a fifth term this coming year.

“It has been the honor of my life to have served the people of District 114,” Fisher told local media. “I wanted folks to feel that they were connected to what was happening in Raleigh and the decisions being made. I hope that my constituents felt included and less isolated during my tenure as their House member.”

Turner said his decision not to run again was the result of reflection and re-evaluation during curtailed activity due to Covid restrictions in the past year. He said he realized how much it meant for him to be with his family and how much his legislative duties were curtailing that quality time. He especially cited increasingly lengthy legislative sessions as encroaching on his family life.

“It has been a privilege to serve the folks of Buncombe county and I am grateful I was given a chance to make a difference in the lives of the people in our community,” Turner told local media.

Rep. Susan Fisher. Photo submitted.

Although chosen from a predominantly Republican district, Turner said he has “worked in a bipartisan way to pass important legislation including raising the minimum age of marriage to reduce sex trafficking, extending the statute of limitations of for victims of sexual assault, and the creation of Pisgah View State Park.”

Turner grew up in Buncombe County, but received his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University. He earned an MBA degree from Wake Forest and, after graduation, pursued a varied career. In his 20’s he relocated to New York, where he became involved in television production work; he helped produce both the MTV Music Awards and several Super Bowl halftime shows. Then, in 2004, he and his wife, Katina, moved back to North Carolina where he assumed the leadership of his family’s business, Mills Manufacturing Co. He later joined the staff of UNCA, and later became Assistant Vice Chancellor. Presently he is a commercial real estate executive with the Asheville firm of Beverly-Hanks. 

Fisher was also raised in Buncombe County and graduated from Asheville High School in 1973. A graduate of Mars Hill College, she served for eight years as a member of the Buncombe County School Board, which she eventually chaired. She worked for a time in the office of U.S. Rep. James McClure Clark.

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