Why is Buncombe County North Carolina Blue?

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

It is a huge anomaly. It is the only county in the North Carolina Appalachia Region that is blue, with there being only one battleground county in the region called Watauga, but that comes as no surprise since out of 55,000ish residents, more than 19,000 are college students at the appalachia state university. But the rest of the area is ruby red. And buncombe county, around 250,000 people in it, centered around the city of asheville with around 85,000ish residents in it. There are no major colleges in the county, the county is also over 85% white, and not regular white, but appalachian whites who tend to vote overwhelmingly republican. Minorities only make up around 15%ish of the county, so there is not a huge minority presence there either. And even though bigger cities are more liberal, even amongst white populations who live in them,  the county essentially has a large town, and then the rest of the population is just centered around it in suburban and rural areas. It just makes absolutely no sense to me how this county trends democratic. Does anybody have any answers?

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Asheville has a high concentration of hippies and "new age"-type people.

Thanks