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Local activists encouraged after meeting with Tillis aide

By Bill Moss, Published: February 24, 2017

Leaders of Hendersonville's Progressive Organized Women said they were encouraged that they were able to meet with a top aide to U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis to discuss their concerns about national issues.

The movement's leaders met with Jordan Shaw on Thursday.

POW's weekly rallies outside the Historic Courthouse have brought hundreds of people from Hendersonville and surrounding communities. While POW organizers Jayne Jennings and Kristi Boyer met with Shaw, about a dozen older citizens demonstrated in front of the courthouse, holding signs thanking Tillis for listening to his constituents.

"We respect that Senator Tillis sent his state director to meet with us," Boyer said in a statement. "He drove up here from Charlotte and said that although he'd done some other work up here today, his primary reason for coming was to meet with us."

Jennings said, "We agreed to a continuing open dialogue between the senator's office and our organization."

Jennings said that Shaw invited the POW directors to phone the Republican senator's office whenever there is something of great concern to the group.

"He said the senator is pragmatic and will take a common sense approach to things, but that Tillis wants to work in a bipartisan manner on issues," Jennings said. "That encouraged us."

Tillis said earlier this year he was ready to reach across the aisle and "...work together to produce results for the American people."

Shaw assured POW leaders that Senator Tillis stands behind this assertion.

Progressive Organized Women is a grassroots, non-partisan activist group of women and men based in Hendersonville. Begun in January by two local teachers, POW focuses on issues immediately before Congress and the Senate such as healthcare, immigration and Russia's involvement in the presidential election. Tuesday afternoon POW rallies take place in front of the Historic Courthouse. For more information, visit POWhendersonville.com.