Woman banned from Chuck Edwards’ McDonald’s after marching band protest

How a western North Carolina woman was banned from any McDonald’s owned by Congressman Chuck Edwards following a marching band protest.

A vocal critic of U.S. Rep Chuck Edwards is banned from his six Henderson, Haywood and Transylvania County McDonald’s restaurants after leading a protest inside one of them with a marching band.

Healthcare advocate Leslie Boyd, 73, is a leader of the Poor People’s Campaign and co-founder of the activist group Asheville Fights Back Network.

She participated in a March 8 protest organized by the progressive activist group PERSIST of Henderson County at Edwards’ Spartanburg Highway restaurant along with the protest marching band Brass Your Heart.

“I play the cymbals,” she said.

After playing a couple of songs, the protesters left when an employee told them they had called the police, she said.

Boyd was barred from all of Edwards’ locations not long after.

Leslie Boyd, a progressive activist leader and vocal critic of U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards was banned from his six Western North Carolina McDonald’s restaurants over her role in a March 8 protest at one of them.

“This letter is to notify you that you are banned from visiting all properties owned and operated by C. Edwards Group,” reads a March 25 letter signed by Edwards’ wife and business partner Teresa Edwards, according to a copy viewed by the Times-News.

“If you are seen in person or on video surveillance on the premises … law enforcement will be immediately notified, and you will be charged with trespassing.”

Boyd said that none of her fellow protesters were banned, as far as she knows. She said that Edwards could have identified her from surveillance footage since the two know each other.

Boyd, a former Asheville Citizen Times employee, reported on social issues and religion for the paper from 2002 to 2009.

Boyd began a boycott of Edwards’ McDonald’s in November over his support of cuts to federal food programs and health insurance subsidies, the Times-News previously reported.

The Poor People’s Campaign has also been organizing recurring protests on the public sidewalk outside the 4 Seasons Boulevard location.

Edwards owns six restaurants: on Spartanburg Highway and 4 Seasons Boulevard in Hendersonville; Commercial Boulevard in Flat Rock; Asheville Highway in Brevard and Plaza Loop and Champion Drive in Canton.

Boyd had been trying to find out which area McDonald’s were owned by Edwards so she could direct people to boycott them but hadn’t been able to until receiving the letter, which included all their addresses, she said.

Boyd said that she’s partly motivated by the cancer death of her son, who was uninsured, despite being employed, because of a pre-existing condition.

U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards stands at Deaverview Mountain in Asheville, N.C., on April 13, 2026, during an event marking Buncombe County’s purchase of the 342-acre property for a future public park.

She said she was also galvanized by Edwards’ “tone deaf” response upon learning that when the two spoke at a Poor People’s Campaign event in Washington around three years ago.

“I’m not going to be violent, I’m not going to get nasty. I’m just going to tell the truth. This man has voted to harm his constituents time and time again” by supporting measures that cut funding for federal programs including SNAP, she said.

Edwards’ office didn’t address Times-News questions regarding the March 15 protest or his votes in Congress.

“I asked to represent the people of Western North Carolina in Washington DC, so I could fight to preserve their freedoms and ensure they have choices for their families, their livelihoods, and their future,” Edwards told the Times-News in an April 20 email.

“I respect the people’s right to make their own choices. But I’m confident the urges for convenience, quick service, all American food, and world famous french fries will win out,” he said.

Boyd encouraged people to continue picketing outside the six McDonald’s.

“He can’t ban me from the sidewalk,” she said.

Reporting by George Fabe Russell, Hendersonville Times-News / Hendersonville Times-News

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