The 2014 mid-term elections have come and gone.  What does that mean for Western North Carolina?

US Senate
NC Speaker of the House Thom Tillis (R) defeated incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan (D) for one of North Carolina's two Senate seats.  Tillis' victory helped tip the balance of the US Senate in favor of Republicans and now both the US Senate & House are controlled by the GOP.

US House
Incumbents Patrick McHenry (R) (District 10) and Mark Meadows (R) (District 11) both dominantly held onto their US House seats. 

NC Senate
All four incumbents in WNC maintained their NC Senate seats.  Three Republicans (Sen. Ralph Hise, Dist. 47, Sen. Tom Apodaca, Dist. 48 and Sen. Jim Davis, Dist. 50) and one Democrat (Sen. Terry Van Duyn, Dist. 49). 

NC House
There were two significant upsets in NC House races, both in Buncombe county districts.  Brian Turner (D) defeated incumbent Tim Moffitt (R) by a narrow margin in Dist. 116 and John Ager (D) defeated incumbent Nathan Ramsey (R) by an even closer margin in Dist. 115.  District 118 also saw a close race, with incumbent Michele Presnell (R) narrowly keeping her seat over challenger Dean Hicks (D).  In the other seven WNC races, the incumbents easily won. 
Republicans maintained a super-majority in both the NC Senate and NC House.

Click here for a full breakdown of all WNC election results or view a map of WNC Senators and Representatives. 

WCMS staff will continue meeting with our local legislators about important healthcare topics (i.e. Medicaid reform, Medicaid expansion, mental health, tort reform) in their offices here in WNC in 2014 and in Raleigh once the 2015 legislative session kicks off.  Please let WCMS know if you're interested in joining us as we meet with legislators by emailing ceo@mywcms.org.

Last Spring WCMS Health Access Counselors developed and began implementing an outreach plan to provide information to the uninsured about how to enroll in the Health Insurance Marketplace (HIM), Medicaid, Medicare and Project Access, as eligible, targeting traditionally underserved populations such as: African Americans, Latinos, Eastern Europeans, and LGBT.

Two outreach events occurred during the third quarter (July-Sept), one with the YWCA and one with ABIPA focusing on the Latino and African-American communities. This resulted in 18 face to face appointments, 11 HIM applications including two enrollments, and nine appeals.

In August WCMS worked with the ACA Partners of WNC including Pisgah Legal, the BC Council On Aging, WNCCHS, Mountain Projects, Legal Services of Sylva and BRCHS to host a celebration honoring all the WNC CACs and Navigators who contributed to NC's success enrolling so many of its citizens in the Health Insurance Marketplace during Open Enrollment One.

Outreach events with Blue Ridge Pride and Fiesta Latina took place in October.