WASHINGTON — As U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards navigated allegations that he assaulted a man at a Rotary event in North Carolina — prompting an investigation that ended with no criminal charges — he did so without the top staffers that had led his team since he was elected to Congress.

Edwards parted ways, earlier this year, with Bronwyn Lance, his chief of staff, and Ryan Dierker, his legislative director. They had provided Edwards with more than 30 years of combined Capitol Hill experience.

He replaced Lance and Dierker with Toby Douthat and Heather Millett, who have a shared 11 years of experience.

“Going into my second term, I decided to restructure the team to meet the current needs of Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene and with my new leadership role on the House Appropriations Committee,” Edwards told McClatchy in a written statement April 28.

Neither Lance nor Dierker responded to requests for comment.

Edwards, 64, a Republican from Flat Rock, is in his second term in Congress. He is serving this year on the House committees on appropriations and budget, putting him in the middle of Congress’ attempt to pass the legislation President Donald Trump refers to as his “big beautiful bill.” All the while, he’s trying to help the 16 counties he serves rebuild after one of the deadliest storms of this century.

And he’s doing it while replacing key members of his senior staff.

“When members of Congress are elected, they’re not, all of a sudden, consumed with knowledge about how the halls of Congress work,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor from Western Carolina University, in Edwards’ district. “They need staff to help. They need staff to show them what’s possible and what’s not possible.”

The fallout from Helene

Lance and Dierker left Edwards’ office in March.

That same month, Edwards made national news when he became one of the few Republicans to hold a town hall meeting with constituents, who applauded him for facing the public but also heckled and booed as they angrily protested Trump administration policies.

Less than two months later, Edwards was back in the national headlines, but this time for personal controversy. Asheville police said a man accused him of assault — but concluded their investigation without charging him with a crime.

Rotarians of District 7670 had invited Edwards to speak about Helene recovery and relief Saturday at their conference at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in downtown Asheville.

Last September, Helene, then a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida and tore its way up the East Coast. In North Carolina, Edwards’ 11th Congressional District bore the brunt of the storm that caused widespread devastation and at least 107 deaths in the state.

Cooper watched as Edwards’ need for constituent services multiplied after the storm.

“All of a sudden, Chuck Edwards had to take his normal congressional operation and ramp it up to deal with what had to be record requests for federal services for helping constituents navigate the federal bureaucracy and helping people understand what the government can do to help them with something they’ve never experienced to this degree,” Cooper said.

Edwards took a leading role in communicating with victims of the storm and making the case for Helene relief.

Early on, he took aim at misinformation that spread quickly after Helene hit, including helping debunk a false rumor of a government land grab to obtain access to valuable lithium deposits.

And in April, he released a report to the White House detailing what he said was still needed to help Western North Carolina recover.

Helene “is what these Rotarians wanted to hear about because everybody there is from the (Rotary’s) one district and most clubs in the district, you either knew people or you were displaced, so you had a very intimate relationship with this storm and with the devastation,” said Guy Gooder, an organizer of Saturday’s event.

Clipboard scuffle

Instead, Gooder said, Edwards went off script. He defended the Trump administration, tariffs and cuts to federal agencies, including agencies that Rotarians work closely with.

Edwards’ words didn’t land well, and as Edwards walked off the stage, Gooder said, a Rotarian told Edwards his speech was “B.S.”

“Chuck stops and kind of bends over, kind of in-his-face type of stuff,” said Gooder, who said he was at the next table over, “and then it continues from there.”

Gooder says Edwards “hit the guy with his clipboard.”

Edwards stood between Gooder and the other man, so Gooder didn’t see the impact, but he heard it.

By 6:47 p.m., Asheville police were at the hotel responding to allegations that Edwards assaulted someone. It would be Tuesday morning before the agency announced charges wouldn’t be filed.

But it was too late to quash the story.

Within hours, word of a police investigation of Edwards on allegations of assault had already made its way across North Carolina to people in the state capital.

Edwards waited to put out a statement until after McClatchy published the first news article about the incident. He blamed the Rotarian.

“Immediately following a speaking event, I refused to engage with an intoxicated man that was cursing,” Edwards said late Sunday morning. “He became more belligerent and later called the police. His behavior was embarrassing to the people at the event and was duly noted by the police.”

Gooder defended his fellow Rotarian, saying he wasn’t belligerent.

And he called Edwards’ statement “pretty dangerous.”

Past controversies

Edwards hasn’t been immune to bad publicity, but this was his first controversy without Lance and Dierker at the helm.

Within a month of taking office, Edwards terminated an employee, Brittney Lofthouse, which she told The Asheville Watchdog was because of her advocacy for LGBTQ+ people. Lofthouse said she warned Edwards about that advocacy before being hired and was told it wouldn’t be a problem.

But then a petition circulated calling on Edwards to get rid of her.

And he did.

In April 2024, Edwards received sanctions from the House Communication Standards Commission after it found substantial reason to believe Edwards violated the rules regarding congressional mail by disparaging President Joe Biden in newsletters he sent to his constituents through his office.

Edwards called the sanctions “a gag order.”

Choosing Chuck Edwards

Edwards owns McDonald’s franchises in Western North Carolina. He was appointed to finish out the term of former state Sen. Tom Apodaca in 2016, and was reelected in 2018 and 2020 to the state Senate.

In 2020, then-Rep. Mark Meadows, a Republican from Western North Carolina, left his office to serve as Trump’s chief of staff,

With the 2020 election looming, then-Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, chose to leave Meadows’ seat vacant instead of holding a special election.

The 11th district chose then 25-year-old Madison Cawthorn to represent them in Congress. And over the course of two years, Cawthorn kept the district in the headlines through various scandals from bringing weapons to airports and schools to allegations of insider trading to accusing his colleagues of snorting cocaine and having orgies.

Cawthorn raised concerns for his constituents from the beginning by announcing that he would build a staff focused on communications and not legislation.

“This is an area that has had a problem with constituent services in the past,” Cooper said. “Mark Meadows ended his term early, and Roy Cooper did not put in a replacement. We then got Madison Cawthorn, who hired a series of inexperienced staffers and did not put much, if any time, into constituency service.”

After three years of political turmoil for Western North Carolina, Edwards chose to forgo reelection and ran instead for Congress. He defeated Cawthorn in a primary and went on to win, in a Republican-majority district, with 54% of the vote.

Constituent services

After his loss, Cawthorn bought a home in Florida, missed votes and closed district offices. Constituents reported having trouble reaching his office.

“When Chuck Edwards was elected, regardless of his ideology, there was a general perception that it was an improvement in constituency services,” Cooper said. “Chuck Edwards hired professionals. They answered the phone, and they generally responded. And so it was seen as a strength of his office, particularly in comparison to the previous offices.”

Cooper watched closely the transitions between the past three representatives in Western North Carolina.

He said Lance’s hiring brought credibility to Edwards’ team.

Lance began working on Capitol Hill in December 1993 for Rep. Charles Taylor, who represented the 11th district then. She spent two decades working for several high-profile senators, including Majority Whip John Barrasso.

After Edwards was elected, she became part of his transition team and then joined his staff once he was sworn in.

“Bronwyn is a seasoned professional,” Cooper said. “She is from the district and of the district, but she has worked in and around the halls of Congress for not months, not years, but decades. Her hire was viewed as an example of a professional office running a professional operation, and particularly after Cawthorn, that was incredibly meaningful.”

It’s not clear Edwards’ rationale for separating from Lance, but Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, both Republicans from North Carolina, quickly hired Lance to serve their office’s efforts on Helene relief in Western North Carolina.

Dierker began on Capitol Hill as an intern for Sen. Rob Portman in 2012, and worked for several members of Congress before being hired on Edwards’ team.

Now, Dierker works for Rising Tide Associates.

“[Dierker] was viewed as a grownup and someone who has spent time around Congress,” Cooper said.

Staff changes

Edwards employs nine people in his Washington office and seven in his district office.

Aside from Lance and Dierker, Edwards’ spokeswoman Maria Kim confirmed a third person left the Washington office in the past six months for personal reasons. McClatchy was able to confirm independently that that person was Zachary Reddig, Edwards’ legislative correspondent, who left in December. A legislative correspondent writes those form letters constituents get back on pending policy.

Edwards touted his new hires in his statement to McClatchy last month.

“I’m proud to have Toby Douthat on the team as chief of staff and Heather Millett as legislative director, and look forward to further bolstering our legislative team,” he said.

Before Reddig, Dierker or Lance left, Edwards named a deputy chief of staff, a position he previously did not have. He promoted his scheduler, Jessie Frank, to that role.

Less than half of House members have a deputy chief of staff, and the responsibilities of that role, otherwise, often fall to the legislative director. Other North Carolina members who hired deputy chief of staffs include Reps. Don Davis, Addison McDowell, Tim Moore and Virginia Foxx.

Frank began her political career in 2018 as a page for the North Carolina House of Representatives.

In May 2020, Edwards hired her to work as an assistant. Over five years, he promoted her to several positions until she became scheduler in his Washington office, before her December promotion to deputy chief of staff.

Douthat, Edwards’ new chief of staff, last worked as an executive director of the Problem Solvers Caucus.

Millett began her career working as Edwards’ legislative assistant in Raleigh and joined his Capitol Hill team in 2023.

Edwards also hired Bryson Hyman to serve as projects assistant beginning June 2. Hyman currently works as a legislative assistant for state Rep. Tim Reeder.

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