随着所有人的目光都集中在北卡罗来纳州关键的参议院选举上，民主党人杰米·阿格周二晚间在北卡罗来纳州第11国会选区悄然赢得胜利——在过去35年里大部分时间都是共和党大本营的地区，翻转了一个众议院席位。
With all eyes on North Carolina’s pivotal Senate race, Democrat Jamie Ager quietly cruised to victory Tuesday night in North Carolina’s 11th congressional district—flipping a House seat in what has been a Republican stronghold for most of the last 35 years.
阿格是一位第四代农民和小企业主，击败了共和党人珍妮弗·鲍尔科姆，结束了这场势均力敌的竞选。该选区涵盖北卡罗来纳州西部的大部分地区，从自由派聚居地阿什维尔到以共和党为主的农村阿巴拉契亚地区。鲍尔科姆不到三个月前才进入竞选，作为共和党现任众议员查克·爱德华兹的临时替补候选人，后者因性骚扰指控而放弃连任竞选。
Ager, a fourth-generation farmer and small business owner, defeated Republican Jennifer Balkcom, marking the end of a close race in a district that encompasses most of Western North Carolina, from the liberal enclave of Asheville to largely red and rural Appalachia. Balkcom entered the race less than three months ago as a last-minute replacement for Republican incumbent Rep. Chuck Edwards, who dropped his reelection bid amid sexual harassment allegations. (On August 3, the House Ethics Committee found Edwards had “engaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers.”)
（8月3日，众议院道德委员会认定爱德华兹“对两名年轻女性工作人员持续表现出不专业和不当行为”。）即使在丑闻曝光之前，阿格的筹款额就已经以将近9比1的优势领先爱德华兹。他继续远远甩开鲍尔科姆，第三季度筹集了230万美元，而鲍尔科姆勉强筹集了35万美元。尽管候选人之间存在资金差距，非党派的库克政治报告直到9月下旬仍认为该选区倾向于共和党，之后该组织才将其定为摇摆选区。
Even before the scandal hit, Ager was outraising Edwards by a nearly 9-to-1 margin. He continued to blow past Balkcom, raising $2.3 million in the third quarter while Balkcom barely brought in $350,000. Despite the candidates’ cash gap, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report considered the district to be leaning toward Republicans until late September, when the group designated it a toss-up.
到选举日，这个选区——该选区在2024年以13个百分点的优势投票支持爱德华兹，并且连续三次支持唐纳德·特朗普总统——被认为倾向于民主党。
By Election Day, the district—which voted for Rep. Edwards by a 13-point margin in 2024 and has gone for President Donald Trump three times in a row—was considered to favor Democrats.
阿格的胜利体现了周二全国选民中民主党的转变趋势，但也凸显了北卡罗来纳州西部特有的情况：民众对特朗普政府处理海伦飓风的方式普遍感到沮丧，该飓风于2024年9月袭击了该州。在飓风过后不久的总统竞选活动中，唐纳德·特朗普猛烈抨击拜登政府对这场灾难的应对，这场灾难在该州造成了至少540亿美元的损失，夺走了100多条生命。
Ager’s victory is emblematic of the Democratic shift among voters nationwide on Tuesday, but it also underscores something distinct to Western North Carolina: widespread frustration with the Trump administration over its handling of Hurricane Helene, which hit the state in September 2024. On the presidential campaign trail shortly after, Donald Trump lambasted the Biden administration for its response to the disaster, which wrought at least $54 billion in damages in the state and took more than 100 lives.
但两年后的今天，许多北卡罗来纳州民众仍在艰难重建，而在2025年，特朗普政府的联邦紧急事务管理署拒绝延续拜登政府的做法，不再对海伦飓风灾后清理工作按100%比例匹配州政府资金。在中期选举前夕，特朗普更是火上浇油，开玩笑说如果民主党人罗伊·库珀赢得参议员竞选，他将扣留援助资金。周二晚间，库珀真的赢了。
But two years later, many North Carolinians are still struggling to rebuild, and in 2025, Trump’s Federal Emergency Management Agency declined to continue the Biden administration’s practice of matching 100 percent of state funds for Helene cleanup. Trump poured salt in the wound in the run-up to midterms when he joked that he would withhold aid if Democrat Roy Cooper won his Senate race. On Tuesday night, Cooper did just that.
艾格和博克姆都将海伦飓风灾后重建作为竞选重点，承诺若当选将在国会争取更多救灾资金。两人还都强调自己在当地世代扎根的背景以及农场主身份。艾格因在家族农场举办活动而在社区颇具知名度；其弟目前在州议会任职，其父曾任州议员，其祖父于1987年至1991年代表该选区在国会任职。
Both Ager and Balkcom made Hurricane Helene a focus of their campaigns, pledging to work in Congress to secure more relief funds for the state. They also both emphasized their multigenerational roots in the area and their backgrounds as farmers. Ager is well known in the community for holding events at the family farm; his brother currently serves in the state legislature, as did his father, and his grandfather represented the district in Congress from 1987 to 1991.
博克姆虽是州众议员，却未能克服艾格家族的知名度优势、自己起步较晚以及筹款劣势。但或许博克姆面临的最大障碍是一位极不受欢迎的总统。北卡罗来纳州第11国会选区自2010年众议员希思·舒勒当选以来，就未再选出过民主党籍联邦众议员；在舒勒之前，上一位担任该席位的民主党人正是艾格的祖父。
Balkcom is a state representative, but she wasn’t able to overcome the Ager family’s name recognition, a late start, and a fundraising gap. But perhaps the biggest obstacle Balkcom faced was a deeply unpopular president. NC-11 has not elected a Democratic representative since Rep. Heath Shuler in 2010; before Shuler, the last Democrat to hold the seat was Ager’s grandfather.
但在选举之夜，以超过20个百分点优势投票给特朗普的农村县似乎都倒向了民主党。得到特朗普背书的巴尔科姆曾试图利用总统最著名的2024年竞选口号之一来为自己赢得胜利，但未能如愿：上个月，全国共和党国会委员会投放了一则人工智能生成的电视广告，描绘了艾格与当地一名变装皇后在一起的画面，并声称“杰米·艾格说话像你我一样，但他却在和他们/她们跳舞。”
But on election night, rural counties that voted for Trump by 20-plus-point margins appeared to be leaning blue. And Balkcom, who received Trump’s endorsement, attempted and failed to parlay one of the president’s most famous 2024 campaign lines into her own victory: Last month, the National Republican Congressional Committee ran an AI-generated television ad that depicted Ager with a local drag queen, claiming “Jamie Ager talks like you and me, but he’s dancing with they/them.”
至于艾格，他是北卡罗来纳州相当典型的民主党温和派。除了飓风海伦妮的灾后恢复，他还在竞选中主张降低医疗成本、改革移民制度，以及清除政府浪费和腐败。今年7月，他签署了由众议员汤姆·苏奥齐（民主党-纽约州）和亚当·格雷（民主党-加利福尼亚州）制定的“对美国承诺”誓约，该誓约将其价值观描述为“资本主义，而非社会主义”和“主流，而非极端”。
Ager, for his part, is a fairly typical North Carolina Democratic moderate. In addition to Helene recovery, he campaigned on lowering healthcare costs, reforming the immigration system, and weeding out government waste and corruption. In July, he signed the “Promise to America” pledge, developed by Reps. Tom Suozzi (D–N.Y.) and Adam Gray (D–Calif.), which describes its values as “capitalist, not socialist” and “mainstream, not extreme.”
但艾格也属于越来越多的北卡罗来纳州民主党人之一，这些人已发誓不接受美国以色列公共事务委员会（AIPAC）的资金——这表明，即使是更建制派的候选人在政治上对以色列游说集团也变得多么反感。在2026年中期选举中，北卡罗来纳州民主党众议员黛博拉·罗斯和瓦莱丽·福希也拒绝接受AIPAC的支持；两人都赢得了连任。
But Ager is also part of a growing number of North Carolina Democrats who have sworn off funding from AIPAC—showing how politically averse even more establishment candidates have become to the Israel lobby. In the 2026 midterms, North Carolina Democratic Reps. Deborah Ross and Valerie Foushee also refused AIPAC support; both won reelection.