For nearly 20 minutes on Monday night, Jamie Ager led dozens of fellow North Carolinians in a barn dance set to Bluegrass tunes at Camp Ton-A-Wandah, a summer camp 20 minutes outside of downtown Hendersonville.
Ager, the Democrat running to represent 16 counties in western North Carolina’s 11th Congressional district, hit the dance floor as part of a campaign event where he shared his message and plans for the region.
The event also struck a serious tone, taking place in a community where wounds of Hurricane Helene remain.
Sept. 27 will mark two years since Helene ravaged western North Carolina. In his remarks, Ager acknowledged how the storm impacted communities across the region and praised community members for supporting one another in its aftermath.
“What inspires me is the fact that everybody came together. Didn’t matter what your politics were, it didn’t matter what your background was, people needed help, and everybody in this community stepped up,” Ager said.
As of late August, the federal government had approved just over $7.5 billion in funds for Helene recovery, a fraction of the $60 billion in damage inflicted region-wide. Ager said more has to be done and vowed to fight for more federal funds.
“ We’ve got people still living in campers, still living in tents. We’ve got people living in sheds. We’ve got families that are struggling. We have small businesses that are struggling, and people in Washington, DC forgot about us here in Western North Carolina,” Ager said. “And when I get elected, they’re not going to forget about Western North Carolina anymore, because I’m going to fight for this community.”
Ager’s supporters at the event have confidence he will fight for the region if elected.
“He’ll fight for it [relief funds]. He’s going to make sure it happens. I don’t think he’ll give up,” Linda Buttery, a Henderson County resident, told Cardinal & Pine.
Ager’s priorities if elected
In addition to securing additional funding for Helene recovery, Ager said his other top priorities are tackling the cost-of-living crisis and fighting corruption in Washington, DC
A poll from NBC found that 28% of voters say the cost of living and inflation is their top issue in this year’s midterm election.
In his speech, Ager acknowledged how rising costs have impacted places like Henderson County, and shared the story of a man in the community who had canceled his health insurance after it soared from $300 to over $1,000 per month.
“Healthcare has gone up 200%, 300%, for so many families,” Ager said.
Many North Carolinians enrolled in plans through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have faced substantially higher healthcare costs this year, with premiums soaring by an average of 150% after congressional Republicans allowed key subsidies to expire. The loss of subsidies also caused a major loss of coverage; 214,000 fewer North Carolina residents are enrolled in the ACA this year, and nearly every county in the state has seen its enrollment decline.
North Carolina’s 21.9% drop in ACA enrollment is the steepest decline of any state in the US.
Ager also targeted the growing crisis of medical debt, which is the leading cause of bankruptcies in the United States.
“ That’s terrible. That’s pathetic. We live in a great country here. When we can’t solve problems like healthcare, we know we have to do better,” Ager said.
Ager strongly criticized President Donald Trump’s policies for increasing costs across the board, specifically citing the president’s war with Iran.
“ What you don’t do when people are struggling to make ends meet in your community, to make their lives work, is you don’t go to war in Iran and cause everybody’s gas price to double,” Ager said.
As of Sept. 22, the average price of regular gasoline in North Carolina is $4.13 per gallon, while diesel fuel hit an all-time high of $6.24 per gallon on Sept. 19 in North Carolina.
Ager also called out corruption in Washington, specifically stock trading by members of Congress.
“ They’re getting rich trading stocks all the time. To me, that makes people cynical that people in Washington, DC are there to work for the people, and it makes people think that people are in Washington, DC to work for themselves. We’ve got to ban members of Congress from trading stocks,” Ager said.
A University of Maryland study found Americans across the board agree. Over 80% of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents believe stock trading needs to be banned.
Eighty-six percent of voters also believe the president, vice president, and Supreme Court justices should be banned from trading. President Donald Trump is currently averaging 80 stock trades per day.
“ Washington, DC is corrupt. It starts to look like a big old coin-operated machine, and the only way to have access to that machine is you gotta put money in the machine, and that’s how you get your favors back from the machine,” Ager said. “And to me, that’s 100% inconsistent with how our system was designed to be a country where people have a voice.”
Ager told Cardinal & Pine in a June interview that the priorities of Washington and the Trump administration haven’t been focused enough on communities like western North Carolina, which he has called home his entire life.
“That administration is building ballrooms in DC instead of building bridges here in western North Carolina, talking about Greenland instead of Newland right here in western North Carolina,” he said.
