Politics

Ager and Balkcom tout ties to farming during candidate forum

Moderator Mark Warwick (center) questions Democrat Jamie Ager (left) and Republican Jennifer Capps Balkcom (right) during a forum on farming as the race for the 11th Congressional District heats up.

By Amy McCraw, Published: August 28, 2026

The Republican and Democratic candidates for the 11th Congressional District on Thursday evening both pledged to make farmers and agriculture in Western North Carolina a priority if elected.

Democrat Jamie Ager and Republican Jennifer Capps Balkcom also touted their ties to farming in the mountains during the candidate forum hosted by Agribusiness Henderson County.
Ager, a fourth-generation farmer who was raised on his family’s Hickory Nut Gap Farms in Fairview, told about 100 people who attended the forum at Blue Ridge Community College that his family came to the area in 1916 and built the farm he now owns.
He said he sees himself as a farmer and entrepreneur and less as a politician.
Balkcom, a Henderson County native and mortgage loan officer, told the group she grew up on a family farm in the county where her roots go back eight generations.
She said she “wanted to make sure we have the next generation to carry farms on.”
Balkcom, who was the incumbent nominee for state house District 117, was named the GOP candidate for the 11th Congressional District earlier this month after incumbent Chuck Edwards dropped out of the race just days after a House Ethics Committee recommended he be censured for workplace behavior toward two female staff members.

After Republican leaders chose Balkcom to replace Edwards on the ticket, they chose Chelsea Walsh to take Balkcom's spot in the state house race.
The candidates at Thursday’s forum responded to a several questions submitted to them by the Argibusiness group and asked by moderator Mark Warwick of WTZQ in Hendersonville.
They admitted to agreeing with each other in their responses to some of the questions.
Warwick ask the candidates what changes they would make to improve the federal H-2A Temporary Agricultural Program that allows farmers to hire foreign seasonal agriculture workers when domestic workers are not available.
Balkcom called the system broken and said farmers need a program that is reliable, simple and affordable.
Ager also called the program cumbersome and aggravating and said the issue has not been addressed in 40 years.
He said he wanted to take up immigration reform if elected and also called for a program that is simple and reliable for farmers.
When asked for her rebuttal to Ager’s answer Balkcom said she thinks the two “mostly agree on this.”
The candidates were also asked if they agreed with the Securing Workforce Act that was introduced in Congress to reform the agricultural guest worker program.
Both said they supported the proposed legislation.
“Absolutely, I support this. This is bipartisan legislation that feels like good policy for the H-2A program,” Ager said.
Balkcom said she agreed.
“I come from a family farm. I see it closely and watch it, the dollars, labor cost, fuel cost, fertilizer cost equipment cost. All those costs hit the bottom line,” she said.
They were also asked what policies they would support to improve the profitability of farms.
Balkcom said she is concerned North Carolina is losing too many farms because growers struggle to make a profit from what they produce.
“There is not just one cost. There is a lot of cost on them,” she said. “We need to work on both sides of the equation, whether we’re lowering costs to the farmer or creating a stronger market so our farms can grow and sell their product.”
She said she supported having the fertilizer, equipment and parts for farm equipment made in the United States.
Fair trade agreements and crop insurance are also important to keep farms profitable, Balkcom said.
“Growers compete against each other. But it’s a lot different when you’re competing against another country, where they don’t have the same set of rules or costs,” she said.
Ager tied higher farming costs to the recent war in Iran and what he called erratic tariffs.
“Clearly, we’ve seen a big problem this spring when we decided to go to war in Iran,” he said. “We saw fertilizer prices spike, double and triple in a lot of scenarios or the availability of it was not even there.”
Ager said the cost of diesel fuel also spiked just as farmers were putting crops in the ground as a result of the war.
Some tariffs, including tariffs on apple juice concentrate brought in from China, make sense for farmers in Henderson County, Ager said.
But he said other tariffs introduced this year helped create a higher budget deficit which made interest rates higher for farmers and reduced their profits.
The candidates were also asked what changes they would make to ensure that federal programs to help small and specialty-crop farmers with risk protection and assistance.
Ager called family farms the lifeblood of rural America. Those farms, he said, take on the risk of losing their crops every time there is a late freeze or hail storm.
“We need programs that mitigate these concerns for Western North Carolina,” he said.
Ager said he wanted government programs to promote entrepreneurship in farm production.
Balkcom said she did not support one-size-fits all government programs. She said she supports making crop insurance more flexible and removing unnecessary barriers when farmers need help.
Balkcom said she worked in the state house on Helene recovery for farmers and knows smaller farms need easier access to disaster funds.
Access to federal funding could mean the difference in whether a farm continues of closes after a disaster, she said.
“I don’t want government running your farms. I’ve said that many times,” she said. “But I do think farmers don’t need to depend on Washington, but we do need government to get out the way and make it easier to farm.”
The candidates also addressed the role science plays in food safety, health and the environment.
Ager called the issue a conundrum because consumers, including the customers at his farm, have concerns about how their food is grown while at the same time consumers often want the quality of food that can only be grown using chemicals.
“We have to be transparent. We have to be clear about how we grow things,” he said.
Farmers need to be able to explain how they are able to grow safe food, he said.
Ager also said he disagreed with cuts to science in the federal government.
Balkcom said farmers need the tools to do their jobs.
“I don’t want to take the tools away from the farmers,” she said, adding that the government needs reasonable guardrails on farming and must hold “bad actors” accountable.
For the last question of the evening, Warwick asked what federal agriculture policy is hurting farmers and what they would do to change it.
Balkcom said she was concerned about the cost farmers pay in the regulation of their work, including labor and food safety.
She said she wants to cut unnecessary regulation and open more markets to farmers.
“We can’t keep making it more expensive to grow food in America and then wonder why we’re buying more of it from China,” she said. “My goal is pretty simple. We open the markets. We lower the burden for farmers, and we put American farmers first.”
When asked to address the same question, Ager said, “I think we totally agree.”
He said he wanted to require country of origin labels on products. He described the policy as “low hanging fruit” because it is important for people to know where their food is produced.
Ager said he also thinks USDA regulations for small farms need to be reviewed.
“I’ve been in the meat processing business long enough to know there are some rules that need to be changed,” he said.