National Democrats make serious play in Western North Carolina
With early voting underway and Primary Election Day a week away, Jamie Ager looks to be sitting pretty.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
In a move that underscores shifting political terrain in Western North Carolina, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has placed a candidate in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District on its radar — an unusual step for a district long considered safely Republican.
Calling Jamie Ager “a top-tier candidate,” a Feb. 23 press release from the DCCC notes that Ager has been added to the group’s highly selective “Red to Blue” program, a merit-based designation for Democratic challengers or open-seat candidates the DCCC believes have a real chance to flip a Republican-held district.
“Jamie Ager is the hometown fighter that North Carolinians deserve to have representing them in Congress,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in the release. “Chuck Edwards abandoned Western North Carolina when they needed him most after Hurricane Helene. Meanwhile, Ager stepped up to help his neighbors. Now, he’s ready to do what Chuck Edwards wouldn’t and fight for Western North Carolina.”
Ager still faces four Primary Election opponents but has been perceived as the frontrunner by many voters since entering the race in July 2025.
Fundraising data through Feb. 11 shows Ager raised more than $940,000 cycle-to-date, tripling the rest of the field combined. He also had $547,000 cash on hand at the end of the period, more than seven times the rest of the field combined.
“We had a conversation at the very beginning that was intentionally locally-focused, but still focused on fighting for the resources we need,” said Grayson Barnette, Ager’s campaign consultant. “Jamie had a great reputation coming into this, and he’s at this point because of 25 years of community engagement.”
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Those selected for the program are provided with hands-on strategic advice, operational assistance, staffing support and candidate training designed to bolster their campaigns and improve their prospects on Election Day. Candidates on the list also receive fundraising help that could open the door to more contributions.
The “Red to Blue” list is about as close as the DCCC ever gets to making an endorsement in a Primary Election. Currently, the DCCC believes there are 44 congressional districts in play across the nation in the November midterms. In North Carolina, that includes the 3rd (Rep. Greg Murphy) and the 11th.
Ager recently picked up an endorsement from the Young Democrats of North Carolina and is the only North Carolina congressional candidate to make the DCCC’s list, which comes as Democrats nationally and locally are sensing opportunity in places they usually don’t.
According to the DCCC, only five other districts in the country swung as hard in Democrats’ favor in the 2024 General Election as NC-11 did.
Party officials say their candidates have won or overperformed in nearly 90% of elections since 2024. Throughout 2025 and into early 2026, Democrats scored a series of notable election victories, flipping long-held, heavily Republican districts in states like Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Georgia and Texas.
Bolstering Democrats’ hopes in Western North Carolina, the Cook Political Report recently downgraded the 11th Congressional District from “Solid Republican” to “likely Republican.”
Cook rates the district at R+5. Data from nonpartisan redistricting site davesredistricting.org shows Republican performance in the district from 2020 through 2024 at 51.9% for Republicans. Democratic performance was lower, at 45.9%.
Recent changes in the North Carolina Republican Party’s NC-11 district leadership have also resulted in resignations that could impact the party’s traditional campaign operations.
Critics of Edwards argue that the 11th District is ripe for change not solely based on national trends, but also because of his recent legislative record — including support of Republican budget legislation, votes reducing Medicaid funding and letting key Affordable Care Act supports expire.
The hurricane-sized elephant in the room for many voters — and candidates — remains sluggish, insufficient federal recovery funding in the aftermath of a catastrophic storm that devastated Edwards’ mountainous district in September 2024. Edwards has since been grilled by both Democrats and Republicans for his failure to deliver meaningful aid for Hurricane Helene recovery.
Edwards sits on the powerful House appropriations committee. In December 2024, he claimed to have authored a $110 billion continuing resolution that contained an estimated $9-15 billion for his district — in response to $60 billion in damage.
Four months later, an investigation by The Smoky Mountain News showed that 25 local governments in Western North Carolina reported receiving less than 4% of their estimated need.
Today, more than 17 months after the storm, current estimates of actual federal aid distributed hover below 15% of need, but those same local governments now entering budget season are still eager to procure the huge sums of federal recovery aid and reimbursements Edwards hasn’t.
“The first step in this process is winning,” Ager told SMN. “You run with the system you have, not system you want, and the system we have says you need resources to fight. These resources will help amplify my message — fighting for resources for Hurricane Helene recovery, tackling the affordability crisis and helping folks get a leader in this region to re-earn people’s trust and make sure our government is functioning in a way that helps everyday people.”
