Jennifer Balkcom and Old Mountain Democrats

 

The Spectrum TV interview with newly minted congressional candidate Jennifer Balkcom in the 11th District of NC will go down as one of the most amazing political face-plants I've ever seen. The interview was filmed in September, shortly after Congressman Chuck Edwards got censured in the House and resigned. Balkcom had just been picked for the ballot in his place. She was clearly unprepared. And she's been widely mocked for her performance. But I'm not interested in mocking her.  

The interviewer asks her, Didn't you use to be a Democrat? Yes, she readily admits. Her grandfather was a big influence, and her whole family were Democrats. "But why did you change?" Here she stumbles a moment and comes up with a parable her grandfather taught her. I'm paraphrasing: "My grandfather always said Democrats were like the donkey that pulled the plow, did the hard work to help others, and I believed all my life that Democrats were people who helped other people. But that changed." What? She leaves us hanging. When did Democrats stop trying to help others? In fact, aren't they usually accused of spending too much on the poor?

She was deflecting. And who knows what really changed her positive evaluation of Democrats as the-donkeys-pulling-the-plow? For a lot of old mountain Democrats, the national party got caricatured as crazy for gays, snooty to God, and conspiring about guns. If the old bloodlines of mountain Democrats go all the way back to the Civil War, you might expect some echoes of racism. She admits that it was in 2016 that she started studying various topics hard and decided that she wanted to become a Republican -- without noticing that was coincidentally the same year as the advent of DJT.

She was careful to say that her particular family was middle-class mountain and that she had always believed it her duty to help people in need. On two obviously favorite topics, Hurricane Helene relief and the need for better health-care services in Western NC, she sounded like a cautious Democrat. More money, more aid, more help. She admits that the Federal response -- that would be the Federal response under DJT -- had not been good, and that the state government, which she's been a part of for two terms in the NC House, had done "more than it was required to do" -- though much more had to be done, more money had to be spent. Rural hospitals were closing, and she well knows the pain and the panic of being an hour or more from medical help. She's not a deep thinker. She would never connect DJT's Big Beautiful Bill with the crisis in North Carolina's rural health care, nor notice that his administration has put FEMA in shut-down mode and is forcing more of the expenses of national disaster-recovery onto individual states.

But the DNA is still in her to pull the plow, I think. She's just aligned herself with the wrong horses.

She deflects through the entire interview. When asked what she would do to ease the prices of everything, she quickly punted: "I have a couple of ideas, but I'm not ready to say which one I like best." There were a whole host of things she wasn't prepared to talk about. "It depends" became a kind of hilarious, repeated dodge. Along with "I'm kind of a details-oriented girl, and until I know all the details I can't tell you if I'm in favor of a policy position or not" -- said in an interview that is almost completely devoid of details.

 

NCGOP Puts Out Halloween Candy for a Sugar High

 

Burger/Hall made sure that three sugary treats would be at the bottom of the North Carolina ballot this November 3rd, three proposed constitutional amendments: 

1. Voter ID Requirement

2. State's Maximum Income Tax Rate, lowered to 3.5%

3. Changes to Property Tax Laws (specific details still being "worked out"). This one really is a pig in a poke.

"Those should stir up our base," thought Burger/Hall. And maybe they're right. Maybe all Republicans, plus any number of Unaffiliateds and some Democrats, will fall right in line with the march off the blind bluff of amendments 2 and 3. Those items have a hidden stinger in their tails, because when you continue to make life as cushy as possible for the wealthy by starving state services, you just make local counties and cities shoulder the burden of taking care of the public's welfare. And the education of their children. And that is probably the ultimate point of the three amendments: The more the weight of government bears down on mainly Democratic cities and a few Democratic counties -- the better! Let the liberals who cluster together pay more taxes, not us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karma Knock--Knock-Knocking on Buck Newton's Door

 

Senate District 4 -- Wayne, Wilson, and Greene counties -- is rated by the Civitas Partisan index as R+3, which is exactly in the sweet spot for a flip if there's a genuine wave. Buck Newton, the Republican incumbent, made something of a name for himself, especially during the whole "Bathroom Bill" uproar, as an obnoxious anti-gay crusader. Jess (Jessica) Rivera, an ex-Marine and lesbian barber shop owner who's married to a woman, is putting up quite a fight to oust Buck Newton. I got alerted to her just this morning by Blair Reeves, whose Carolina Forward operation has endorsed her. If Blair is enthusiastic, then I'm enthusiastic. (Rivera has earned a raft of other progressive endorsements.)

Newton famously gave up his safe NC Senate seat in 2016 to run against Josh Stein for Attorney General. Newton earned a good deal of negative attention that year by yelling "fight to keep North Carolina straight" at a campaign rally, and he has consistently seemed to equate any species of queer with "predator," fanning fear of The Gay in rural precincts. Stein beat him for A.G. by a hair. Newton regained the Dist. 4 Senate seat six years later, in 2022, and has held it since. He won reelection in 2024 by 10 points over his Democratic opponent. 

 

 

Newton has been indelibly defined for me by a post on a Facebook thread in 2016, written by someone who was a fellow student with Newton in AppState's political science program:

I knew Buck Newton when he was in college. He was always very opinionated, angry, looked down on others, always saw things in simple terms, always quick to jump to conclusions, always claimed things were "common sense". He was always very judgmental and used bully tactics on others to make his opinion appear correct. He was always full of confidence based on simple, black and white views of the world. Several of us thought he was an idiot because of his lack of ability to see and understand what was beneath the surface of issues. This bill/law [HB2] sounds exactly like something college-kid Buck would do. Apparently, he has not grown much. There are many smart and wise people in North Carolina who see God's creation as it truly is - a very complicated marvel, so it is absolutely shocking that such a person of low understanding could rise to such power based on such a superficial foundation. Shocking. At one point in time, the earth being flat was "common sense", blacks being inferior was "common sense"... And, here we are... again.

 

Jess Rivera

 

Now comes in 2026, Jess Rivera, the 40-something ex-Marine with combat experience, to potentially clean Newton's clock. Jess Rivera, by all appearances (and you know how shallow I am!) looks to be running a truly muscular campaign. On her website she identifies herself as the oldest of six kids from a Mexican-Irish, working-class family. She says she had to go to work at 13 to bring home money to the family. At 15, their home was foreclosed on. At 17, Rivera joined the Marines:

It wasn’t just a decision to serve, it was a decision to survive. The Corps gave me structure, discipline, and a way to carry myself through the world with purpose. It also taught me when to speak and when to listen. And that both matter equally. 

After her Marine hitch ended, Rivera trained in cosmetology and hair-styling, and about four years ago opened the Garrison Barber & Parlor in downtown Wilson -- "a place where people can feel proud to walk in, and even more proud walking out. A place that says we all matter .... I’m running for State Senate because I know what it’s like to fall through the cracks. And I know how much it matters when someone reaches out and says, 'I see you'.”

She's effective in live reels on her Facebook feed, talking straight and with some color about the sham laws that Buck Newton and his boys in Raleigh passed, like the stuff put into the budget that made all General Assembly members owners of their own (formerly public) records -- now rendered private and protected from view. Not only that, the GA members can sell their records, if they so please. ("And what am I bid for Senator Mugstomp's love notes?") In one video, Rivera mocks the "one ... two ... three" attack postcards -- over-sized and flamoyant with screaming color -- that either Buck sent out or some PAC looking to save him from the dangerous lesbian -- 3 in one week! (That was the sort of attack barrage the monied Right used to unseat Cullie Tarleton in HD 93 in 2010.) I like Rivera's cool dismissal of those vicious over-sized postcards with their screaming attack lines as worthless dustballs churned up by a genuinely spooked incumbent. The thought of losing to a lesbian if you're Buck Newton!

Man! I'd like to be at the Rivera victory party on November 3.

I don't know about Rivera's fundraising. Third Quarter reports aren't due to the SBOE until the 27th of this month. For the 2nd Q, she reported less than $50,000 raised or on-hand. I wouldn't even go look at Buck Newton's 2nd Q. He has all the money he needs to send three big flaming attack pieces against Rivera every week until the election.

It's All About Rural Culture

 

The new TV ads from both Jamie Ager and Jennifer Balkcom in the 11th Congressional Districts are pretty brilliant, really. The Balkcom ad has gotten more exposure for its previously unknown candidate -- it's being talked about all over the district, and that's what some smart person in her campaign intended -- but Grayson Barnette has made a name for himself as campaign manager for Ager. Barn Dance is perfect. And so is Balkcom's Mom, which I guarantee you every rural person in the 11th District who sees it, says approvingly, with the right touch of sentimentality, "My mother [or my granny or some other blood relative] was just like that!"

Political Science prof Chris Cooper used some hyperbole after he saw the ads -- "said he thinks the NC-11 race is more interesting than the other 434 congressional districts combined."