NC Rep. Brian Turner talks veto overrides, going back to the House | Podcast
Good Tuesday morning to you and welcome to our Under the Dome politics newsletter. I’m Dawn Vaughan, Capitol bureau chief and host of our Under the Dome podcast. In this week’s episode: my conversation with a state lawmaker right after a chaotic week at the General Assembly.
I’m joined by Rep. Brian Turner, a Democrat from Buncombe County. First elected in 2014, Turner served the House and then took a term off, then came back. We talk about why he left and why he came back, and his career from Mills Manufacturing to UNC Asheville. It was working at UNC Asheville that got him interested in running for the legislature.
“It was right after the Republicans had sort of flipped the chambers and were enacting new budgets,” Turner said, and he remembers the UNC Asheville chancellor giving speeches about how that campus’ “budget cuts weren’t as bad as other institutions, and we should consider ourselves lucky.”
“Well, wait a second, that’s just not the direction we should be going. And so I was like, who’s in charge of this? And it turned out it was the General Assembly. So then I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna run for the General Assembly.’”
More than a decade later, Turner has a unique perspective of serving under different Democratic House leadership, different governors and with a lot of different legislators.
I asked him about the latest Republican Speaker Destin Hall, and Turner shares his take on Hall’s job as an “air traffic controller.”
Turner talks about what’s different between House Democrats and House Republicans.
“I think that we are more inclined to listen to and be able to have differing opinions and be OK with it. ... I think we’re a little more —we like to give people a little more freedom to move about, vote their conscience, vote their constituency. And sometimes that aligns with the bigger picture, and sometimes it doesn’t,” he said.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about what Turner said about this past week’s veto override votes, including the next election.
You heard it here first: Turner is running for reelection in 2026.
He represents a Western North Carolina district, so we talk about what he thinks is still needed for Helene recovery.
Stay tuned to the end for our picks for Headliner of the Week.
Where to listen
Listen to the Under the Dome podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Thanks for reading, and listening. Contact me at dvaughan@newsobserver.com.
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