Republicans have held North Carolina’s western-most congressional district since 2012. On Tuesday night, that changed when Fairview’s Jamie Ager flipped it.
Ager, a fourth-generation western North Carolina farmer, defeated Republican state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom and Libertarian Travis Groo on Tuesday to claim the 11th Congressional District seat. His victory provided a key to shifting the U.S. House blue, giving Democrats the party’s first victory in the state’s westernmost congressional district since Democrat Heath Shuler’s term ended in early 2013.
“Y’all have sent me up to D.C. and I promise that I will be the same mountain Democrat that I have been my entire life,” Ager told supporters celebrating at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. “Mountain Democrats are patriots. We admire people who serve our country and our communities. We love our country — and we fight to make it better.”
With 99% of votes counted as of Wednesday, Ager had won 57.1% of the vote (195,637) to Balkcom’s 41.3% (141,427). His victory was part of a broader surge that significantly changed the state’s political landscape. But it also reflected a changing electorate in the mountains — 16 counties there are represented by the district — where Republicans have dominated for nearly 14 years.
Another part of Ager’s family legacy is political. Ager’s grandfather, James McClure Clarke, represented western North Carolina in Congress during the 1980s and early ’90s. His father, John Ager, served in the N.C. House from 2015 to 2023, and his brother, Eric Ager, currently serves in the North Carolina General Assembly.
Meanwhile, Jamie Ager’s path to Washington was aided by the departure of Republican incumbent Chuck Edwards, who won his March primary with about 70% of the vote but dropped his reelection campaign in August after a congressional ethics investigation.
A House Ethics Committee investigation noted allegations about Edwards’s treatment of female staff members and recommended censure following an Aug. 3 report concerning sexual harassment and a hostile workplace. Edwards disputed the findings, then two days later announced he would not seek reelection.
District Republicans then selected Balkcom, a Henderson County state legislator, to replace Edwards, leaving her less than 90 days to mount a campaign against an opponent who had been campaigning for more than a year. She was able to raise just $35,300 in financial support, according to federal campaign finance reports, compared to Ager’s $5.5 million.
Balkcom, who works as a mortgage loan officer, conceded Tuesday night but promised another run in 2028.
“(W)hile it isn’t the outcome we wanted, I am proud of the campaign we were able to mount in such a short span of time in one of the worst political environments in modern history,” she wrote on X.
Ager’s victory proved voters were focused on platforms, not just party politics in the ballot box, Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University told NC Local.
“I don’t think Jamie Ager is anybody’s definition of a far left candidate but he’s still a Democrat and he’s still mostly running on capital-D-democratic positions,” Cooper said.
Ager and other candidates benefited from the national blue wave, he explained. Some local races were also impacted.
“That boost did have some trickle-down effect, but it wasn’t big enough to override the more stubborn parts of political geography,” Cooper said.
For Ager, the result represents both a family legacy and a political breakthrough — returning a Democrat to a congressional seat his grandfather once held, in a region where the party has struggled for more than a decade.
On Election Day, former Democratic state representative and senator Joe Sam Queen campaigned for Ager at polls in Waynesville.
“Jamie Ager is the real deal,” Queen told NC Local. “He’s as fine a candidate as we’ve had since Heath Shuler and just a great guy. He’s a real cowboy with real cows. He’s not all hat and boots. He’s the cow man.”
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