District NC-11: Three Strikes for the Trumpublicans

August 24, 2026 — Hendersonville, NC

I have a personal policy of avoiding demeaning language. Yet, left unexplained, I expect some folks may take offense to the term “Trumpublicans” as I’ve used it above. So I will briefly explain the title of this piece, which is intended with the greatest of respect; because I truly believe that there are still reasonable non-Trump-supporting Republicans in Western North Carolina (WNC).

I believe there are Republicans who can recognize that Trump is increasing authoritarianism in ways that hurt all of us. Who recognize that rising prices, shrinking job markets, and increased spending on war, walls, and vanity projects aren’t the best things for those of us who pay taxes out of our hard-earned money.

I also recognize that we cannot build up a community of neighbors by believing the worst of folks we do not even know based solely on their political affiliations.

The fact is that people and politics are both so much more complex than just a party affiliation can convey. I believe that there may still be some good, kind, thoughtful people in the Republican Party.

Therefore, I have used the term “Trumpublican” to describe the most recent three Republican representatives from NC-11 and I am using that term to describe the newly annointed (by the Republican party, not the people) Republican candidate for NC-11 since Chuck Edwards has chosen to withdraw from the House race due to serious findings of “sexual harassment of and unwanted advances to House staffers.”

In using this term, I hope that reasonable Republicans will see that this newest candidate fits neatly within the mold of these other three scandal-ridden Trumpublicans. Perhaps reasonable Republicans will at least abstain from voting for this newest candidate, even if they cannot bring themselves to vote for the seemingly very genuine Mountain Democrat, Jamie Ager.

Note: I’m not a Democrat. My political beliefs do not fit well within our current system, so I’m certainly not here to tell you who to vote for.

I’m simply here to say:

We’ve been down this road three times now. Maybe it’s time to try something different.

Truth be told, I have notes upon notes written about Jennifer Balkcom and it saddens me a bit to not use most of them. My plan, you see, was to write a hard-hitting article about the many foibles, dramas, and hypocrisies that several concerned community members have communicated with me about Jennifer Balkcom.

Aside: If anyone out there is a good writer of spicy political articles, I’m happy to put you into contact with some contacts. Just let me know!

Instead, I’ve made the decision to focus on the most interesting (to me) commonalities when it comes to the Republican Party and their choices for district NC-11. I am focusing on four issues in this article. Please feel free to skip around to those that resonate the most with you personally and you will find another copy of this list of topics at the bottom of the article for easy browsing.

Commonalities:

1. Being enamored with Trump (a convicted felon)

2. Being a Christian Nationalist (an ideology that leads to less freedom, not more)

3. Opposing Bodily Autonomy (with a focus on abortion care as healthcare)

4. Opposing Affordable Healthcare (which is, by definition, an anti-life position)

It seems to me that when you choose candidates who closely align with a convicted felon, you’re likely to elect folks who are unethical themselves as well. The past three Republican NC-11 representatives have each been investigated by the House Ethics Committee for reasons ranging from financial mismanagement of taxpayer funds to sexual misconduct. You can read more about those details at this article from Just the News.

To reinforce the Trump connection, Jennifer Balkcom was endorsed by Trump earlier this month. It also doesn’t get much more Trumpy than Jennifer Balkcom being inspired to get involved with politics by the orange man himself:

Jennifer says here that she switched to Republican…

“…when Donald Trump, our nation’s most prominent former Democrat, came down that escalator. He got my attention… and he made me look at things differently. He got me excited about politics. And, more importantly, he made me realize, like him, that my conservative values were more at home in the Republican Party. So I switched parties. The same thing happened with a lot of folks that I know, and that you probably do too.”

Mark Meadows and Madison Cawthorn have very clear ties to Christian Nationalism and even participated with some of the very same organizations that Jennifer Balkcom has ties to.

You can see here, as well as below, how Jennifer Balkcom mixes church and state. This is just one example of many. Note the hashtags and how she attended this event that appears to be specifically designed to blur the lines between church and state:

Now, this appears to contrast with her answer to the iVoterGuide question about what the relationship should be between church and state. However, actions speak quite a bit louder than words and if she does get elected, I hope that everyone (including her Christian constituents) would hold her to her words and call out her participation in groups like the one above.

Jennifer Balkcom appears to have provided the following answer in 2022, perhaps prior to deciding she’d attend the above separation-blurring event:

“Freedom from religious persecution and intolerance was a fundamental reason our nation was settled and a keystone of our system of limited government. Government has no business in the affairs of Faith and the separation of church and state is essential to protecting our religious freedom.”

If you want to learn more about the dangers of Christian Nationalism more generally here’s a personally curated affiliate book list you can get started with (many, maybe all, should be available at your local library) and here’s an article that has links to other free online resources about the issue of Christian Nationalism in the USA, specifically looking at the Seven Mountains Mandate of Christian Dominionism — connected to Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA.

Now, I ask you all, somewhat rhetorically; but also feel free to answer if you feel led to:

In a free society, what’s the one thing we should absolutely have control over?

If you said or thought “one’s own body” then you’re on the same wavelength as I am.

Of course, it’s also true that having accessible/affordable healthcare, food, and shelter is a large part of being able to live a comfortable and free existence.

But… the most basic freedom is the freedom to do what we want with our own bodies. This freedom includes who we choose to partner with or marry and what we choose to do about our own medical care. Personally I believe this freedom should be fully available to all consenting adults in a free society no matter our sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender presentation/expression.

Bodily autonomy includes the right to make medical decisions about oneself with informational support from a doctor. Yet Jennifer Balkcom stands firmly against women (and other female-bodied folks) having the right to determine the course of our own medical care.

Jennifer Balkcom has outright stated that she believes abortion is “never medically necessary” which is factually incorrect. Here’s a one-minute Facebook video of an Asheville doctor speaking out against that assertion.

Going by the full quote below from the iVoterGuide political survey, Balkcom appears to redefine the word “abortion” as being much more limited in scope than it actually is. I first read about this GOP redefinition strategy on Jessica Valenti’s excellent newsletter Abortion Every Day.

Here’s Balkcom’s full quote:

“Abortion is never medically necessary. There is never a situation in the law or in the ethical practice of medicine where a preborn child’s life need be destroyed by intentional abortion, including for the purpose of saving the life of the mother. A physician must do everything possible to save the lives of both of his patients, both the mother and the child. I believe that it is important to distinguish between direct, intentional abortion and a legitimate treatment for a medical condition (ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, etc.) that a pregnant mother may choose to save her life.”

To be very clear, the above quote is filled with medically-inaccurate information.

The fact is that when I had two of my miscarriages (medically known as “spontaneous abortions”), I received abortion care. Both times when I required medical assistance, that assistance was the exact same thing that would have been done if I’d chosen to have an abortion. When someone’s health (whether mental or physical) is at risk from remaining pregnant, the name of the life-saving procedure they should receive is an abortion.

Balkcom’s use of all-or-nothing language reveals very little understanding of reproductive healthcare, which is understandable! Most people have very little understanding of reproductive healthcare.

This widespread ignorance about abortion and healthcare in general is exactly why I believe all medical care for adults, including abortion and gender-affirming care, should be decided between the patient themself and their doctor.

Right now, as families across the USA are struggling to cover their regular bills, the absolute last thing we need is yet another “representative” who consistently votes to oppose healthcare subsidies and increase barriers to accessing necessary care.

Jennifer Balkcom has received a failing grade of “D” from the Affordable Healthcare Coalition of NC. You can find more information about her specific votes on their website here. She has also received solid criticism from WNC doctors regarding her bogus abortion claims as well as her votes opposing the expansion of medicaid subsidies for NC families.

If we are going to pay taxes, and clearly taxes aren’t going away any time soon, then we deserve to see some benefits from those taxes. Our representatives should be working for us and for our best interests, which should include having access to comprehensive healthcare so that we don’t die from something preventable simply because we couldn’t afford one more bill.

Okay, to recap, we’ve covered these topics:

1. Being enamored with Trump (a convicted felon)

2. Being a Christian Nationalist (an ideology that leads to less freedom, not more)

3. Opposing Bodily Autonomy (with a focus on abortion care as healthcare)

4. Opposing Affordable Healthcare (which is, by definition, an anti-life position)

I’m sure there are many more similarities I could highlight between these four folks, but these are the four issues I currently feel most passionately about so that’s where I focused my attention.

And I hope it’s helpful to have the comparisons.

May we stop doing the same things and expecting better results. May we move on and try something different this year!

Thank you for reading, thank you for caring.

~Betsy

No generative ai was used in the writing of this article or any of my others. All Human, All the Time!