On July 18, 2026, officials of the Haywood County Republican Party — the party chaired by Kim Genova — denied a credentialed Asheville Citizen Times reporter entry to a publicly advertised campaign event for U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley. The event was held at the Waynesville Recreation Center, a facility owned by the Town of Waynesville and paid for by its taxpayers. According to the Citizen Times, the town’s own attorney had warned that excluding the reporter violated town policy. They excluded him anyway.
This is not a story about one reporter or one candidate. It is a story about whether the people of Haywood County get to see and hear the candidates asking for their votes, or whether a party official gets to decide that for them.
What Is Documented
- A credentialed reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times was denied entry to a publicly advertised campaign event for U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley.
- The event was held at the Waynesville Recreation Center — a town-owned public facility, not a private venue.
- Per the Citizen Times, Waynesville’s town attorney warned that the exclusion violated town policy before it happened.
- Reporting describes the incident as part of a broader pattern of restricted press access around the Whatley campaign, including reporters being denied entry and police being called on a journalist at other events.
Why It Matters
Keeping a journalist out of a public political event on public property is not crowd control. It is an attempt to control what voters are allowed to know about the people who want power over them. A free press is not a courtesy that officials extend when the coverage is flattering; it is the mechanism by which self-government actually works.
In my view, doing this on taxpayer-owned property, after being warned by the town’s own attorney that it broke the rules, is worse still. It says the people running this event believed the rules did not apply to them. A party genuinely confident in its candidate does not need to hide him from a local reporter with a notebook.
Leadership means accountability. This happened under the leadership of the Haywood County Republican Party and its chair, Kim Genova. Constituents of every political stripe deserve better than to have their information filtered by whoever happens to hold a party office.
What Should Happen
The Haywood County Republican Party should publicly commit that credentialed local journalists will be admitted to its public events on equal terms, regardless of the outlet they represent or the coverage they have produced. And residents can ask the Town of Waynesville how a group was permitted to bar the press from a town facility after being told doing so violated town policy.
Take Action
- Contact the Haywood County Republican Party and tell them the public’s access to public events is not optional.
- Register to vote in North Carolina — the surest response to officials who don’t want you informed is an informed vote. (Official NC State Board of Elections.)