January 20th , 2026 Len’s Political Note #783 Jamie Ager North Carolina 11
2026 General Election
It is only one poll. An internal one at that. But farmer and Democrat Jamie Ager led Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards by a point. What’s more, in that same poll, when information about the two of them is added for respondents, Jamie Ager led by 7.
Jamie Ager is a farmer with an interest in politics. He grandfather served in the US House of Representatives; his dad served in the North Carolina State House and his brother Eric is in the same seat in that State House of Representatives now. Ordinarily, none of this would get you far in a congressional district that regularly votes Republican. What’s more, Jamie Ager has a primary opponent – retired military lawyer, Moe Davis. Davis lost the Congressional race in 2020 to Madison Cawthorn by nearly 55,000 votes. James Ager should win the primary in 2026. But can he defeat Congressman Chuck Edwards? Is there something wrong with Edwards that makes him vulnerable?
Chuck Edwards is from western North Carolina. He graduated from high school in 1978, got a community college degree in business, and in 1989 went to work in the business end for McDonalds. He stayed until 1998 and shifted into local banking and local politics. By 2020, he had been in the North Carolina State Senate for three terms and had participated in the merger of Entegra Financial, of which he was a director, with First Citizens. He ran for Congress in 2022, defeating the embarrassing Madison Cawthorn in the primary by less than 1,400 votes and winning the general by 30,000. Edwards won the 2024 general election by nearly 60,000 votes.
His tenure in Congress was marked by his advocacy for counting only citizens in the census and a sanction by the House Communication Standards Committee. Edwards had violated House rules by using a government funded mass mailing to disparage President Biden. He did, however, console President Donald Trump for his unsuccessful effort to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Recalling his years working for McDonalds, Edwards, created the French Fry Certification Pin and awarded it to Donald Trump. It is not the Nobel Prize, but it is something.
Jamie Ager focuses on Chuck Edwards’ failures. The very first issue Jamie Ager addresses in his website’s policy section is recovery from Hurricane Helene. Helene travelled north from the Gulf through the Florida panhandle to Georgia and the western parts of the Carolinas. The Smokey Mountain News reports that North Carolina Governor and now US Senate candidate Roy Cooper took a delegation to Washington to ask for $25 Billion to assist in a recovery that required a total of $60 Billion. Appropriations Committee Member Chuck Edwards was encouraging. The Committee and, ultimately the House, passed a bill with $100 Billion for recovery from the Hurricane. However, North Carolina would receive, from the bill, between $9 and $15 Billion. The Smokey Mountain News complains that Edwards has never responded to a request from them for an explanation of why so little was allocated to North Carolina.
Jamie Ager commented to the News: “That’s frustrating, yeah, the fact that Chuck Edwards said we’re going to get all this money, and [he] actually sits in roles that can help facilitate getting that money, and then not actually being clear about what’s going on, that’s a leadership problem,” Jamie Ager also describes Chuck Edwards failure to communicate about, let alone help, with the closure of a paper mill that employed about a thousand people. The Smokey Mountain News comments that Edwards was equally unresponsive about the failure to find alternative sources of funding to avoid having to levy new parking fees to nearby US Parks, creating substantial costs for local residents who love to visit their parks.
Edwards’ failure to support sufficient funds for recovery from Hurricane Helene extends the maddening Right Wing effort to hinder recovery from this September 2024 disaster. The goal had been to damage the national Democratic Presidential campaign. Social media spread posts falsely claimed that North Carolina law enforcement was planning to arrest FEMA staffers because the staffers prevented the state from aiding victims of the hurricane. Elon Musk spread false claims that FEMA was actually blocking shipments of material to North Carolina. Others manufactured a story about US Marine snipers targeting FEMA employees in retaliation for FEMA’s bad behavior. Not unrelated to this problem, several Jewish officials, among them US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FEMA Public Affairs Director Jaclyn Rothenberg, and Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, were subject to anti-Semitic attacks so severe that they feared for their safety. Relevant only because she is now Florida’s appointed US Senator and running for election, Ashley Moody, Florida’s then Attorney General, either believed these rumors or just wanted to add to the fun. She filed suit against FEMA for discrimination.
Jamie Ager’s second priority is health care. In his interview with Smokey Mountain News, he expanded the list to include Social Security, Medicare and the VA “These are very effective ways to help those who need help,” he said. “These programs make America a great country and create the safety net that we all need…. These programs are terrific examples of how humans are generous and want to help other humans.”
Jamie Ager is a counterpoint to Chuck Edwards. Instead of working on the business end of McDonalds, he runs his Honey Nut Gap Farm as a sustainable meat farm. His education was the opposite of Chuck Edwards’ community college business degree. James Ager went to a college that had once been known as the Asheville Farm School but is now the Warren Wilson College with the slogan “You Won’t Just Learn It, You’ll Do It.” Not an elite Ivy League school, its website announces they have lowered tuition to $25,500. “And every student receives financial aid, to reduce the cost even more.”
If any Democrat can (can I say it?) bring home the bacon and win North Carolina 11, it is Jamie Ager. DONATE.
Other North Carolina races
US Senate. Former two term Attorney General and two term Governor Roy Cooper is the Democrat most likely to flip a Republican Senate seat. Help him do it. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #744.
North Carolina 01 Democratic incumbent Don Davis is among the most vulnerable in the country. The North Carolina legislature keeps making this district more Republican and will do more if a undertakes a mid-decade redistricting. Help Don Davis keep the district Democratic. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #721.
North Carolina’s Neighbor to the South
South Carolina
US Senate. Democrats have a rare choice of two excellent candidates: Brandon Brown is a respected administrator at a Historically Black College – DONATE. Pediatrician Annie Andrews is impassioned about protecting the health and welfare of South Carolinians – DONATE. Either would have a project running against incumbent Republican Lindsey Graham, whose large war chest could sustain him against the possibility that many South Carolinians believe he has worn out his welcome.
Here’s a final question for today? With Hallie Shoffner running for the Senate in Arkansas, Blake Gendebien running for New York 21 and James Ager running for North Carolina 11, could this be the year of the Democratic farmer?
