A campaign ad from Republican Congressional candidate Jennifer Balkcom, produced using artificial intelligence to attack Democratic candidate Jamie Ager, has attracted widespread condemnation from Western North Carolina’s LGBTQ+ community.
The ad shows an AI-generated likeness of Ager, Balkcom’s opponent in the race to represent North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, overseeing a “drag queen barn dance” to the strains of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”
As Ager’s digital effigy twirls through the barn with a performer in a voluminous blonde wig and purple dress, the voiceover intones: “Jamie Ager talks like you and me on TV, but he’s dancing with they/them.”
Madison Root, president of the Asheville-based advocacy group Blue Ridge Pride, called Balkcom’s ad “reprehensible.” Root objected both to its message — that “the mere association with LGBTQ people is in itself an abomination” — and to the use of AI to reproduce the likenesses of local drag performers without their consent.
Those whose images were used in the video include Ethan Lane Fletcher, whose drag alias Nova Jynah appears to be the basis for the AI simulacrum dancing with Ager. In a video posted to Facebook, the performer vehemently denied having ever met the Democratic candidate. Fletcher subsequently filed a cease-and-desist letter with Balkcom’s campaign.
“Y’all had to use AI. Y’all had to waste our clean water to make a video for something that never happened,” Fletcher said. “Y’all talk about bullshit that has never happened, or is never going to happen, in order to scare voters into voting for you, because you have no platform to stand on.”
Balkcom’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Merry Guy, Republican Party chair for N.C. District 11. However, the Republican’s campaign told WLOS on Oct. 23 that Ager was “sending his left-wing army to attack his political opponents after being exposed for hosting events exposing young children to inappropriate performances.”
The ad names the National Republican Congressional Committee as its funder. NRCC spokesperson Reilly Richardson said the group was aware of Fletcher’s cease-and-desist letter but had no plans to stop running the ad. He also provided a nearly identical statement to the one Balkcom’s campaign had shared with WLOS, adding only that “the NRCC stands by the ad.”
Ager’s campaign provided the Citizen Times with the same statement it has issued to other media outlets. Spokesperson Cole Brown wrote the ad was “insulting to the intelligence of voters in Western North Carolina and another example of the exact corrupt system he is running against.”
Ager himself subsequently posted a video response to Balkcom’s ad on social media, calling it “bullcrap” and expressing frustration with the politics of the moment.
“I’m running a campaign based on the deep values we have in Western North Carolina around politics that’s good for people, that builds up our community, and that makes a better future for our kids and the people that live here,” the Democratic candidate said.
Ad makes misleading claims about Ager
The Balkcom ad cites an Oct. 16 story by Breitbart as its primary source. Unlike the ad, however, the article does not say that Ager ever hosted a dance with drag queens. Instead, it references a 2019 event at Ager’s Hickory Nut Gap Farm, which listed one group that performs in drag — The Beer City Sisters — as part of a much broader entertainment lineup.
The ad also claims that “last month, Ager wrote a check to Blue Ridge Pride.” His campaign’s most recent quarterly filing with the Federal Election Commission does list a $5,000 donation to the nonprofit, dated July 2.
Root, the Blue Ridge Pride president, told the Citizen Times that Ager’s campaign had sought to sponsor her organization’s September festival. However, she said that the group declined Ager’s sponsorship and returned the funds; as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Root explained, “we felt like that was too far into partisanship,” especially given that the sponsorship would have come with prominent placement on Pride marketing materials.
Blue Ridge Pride, Root continued, also had concerns over Ager’s policies on transgender participation in sports. In June, Ager signed the “Promise to America,” a centrist pledge led by Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York. While the pledge itself doesn’t reference transgender people, its critics have pointed to Suozzi’s position that “biological boys” shouldn’t play girls’ sports.
In an Oct. 20 interview with WLOS, Ager said he was “not interested in having scenarios that are unfair for kids in sports” but that any decisions on trans youth participation needed to be made on the local level. Balkcom has taken a tougher line on the issue, noting that she filed a 2023 bill in the state legislature that banned trans athletes from girl’s’ middle school and high school sports.
No laws about AI in NC political ads
While Balkcom’s ad disclosed its sources and funding, it did not have to include any indication that its images were fabricated by AI. That’s because North Carolina is one of 19 states with no law regarding the use of the technology in political campaigns.
Efforts to put such guardrails into place have failed at the General Assembly. House Bill 375, a bipartisan push to ban “deepfakes and deceptive advertisements in elections,” never received a committee hearing after being filed in March 2025. And a Democratic-led effort to require AI ad disclosure as part of a broader bill on social media and AI safety failed along party lines in June.
Republicans have generally made greater use of AI than Democrats in this year’s midterms, both nationally and in North Carolina. A recent New York Times report noted that 80% of AI ads across the country have supported Republican candidates. As reported by Raleigh’s News & Observer, Republican state Sen. Michael Lee of New Hanover County used AI to show Democratic opponent Jessica Bichler as a grotesquely contorted yoga instructor.
To the knowledge of Beth Hampton Jones, chair of the N.C. District 11 Democrats, her party hasn’t adopted any internal policies around AI use. In cases where Democrats do employ the technology, she hoped candidates would use it to build trust and positivity rather than “nastiness” in campaigning.
Reporting by Daniel Walton, Asheville Citizen Times / Asheville Citizen Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
