{"id":446,"date":"2026-05-16T11:33:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=446"},"modified":"2026-05-16T11:33:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:33:58","slug":"a-north-carolina-farmer-is-testing-whether-democrats-can-still-win-rural-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=446","title":{"rendered":"A North Carolina farmer is testing whether Democrats can still win rural America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Candidate Jamie Ager is distancing himself from his national party, whose efforts to regain the House may depend on support from such communities.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Trump\u2019s China summit shows toll of a difficult year for the president<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jamie Ager last month at his Hickory Nut Gap Farm in Fairview, North Carolina. (Allison Joyce\/For The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

ASHEVILLE, N.C. \u2014 Fifth-generation farmer Jamie Ager won the Democratic nomination in a swingy, rural North Carolina House district in March. Now, he faces two opponents: a well-known Republican and his own party\u2019s brand.<\/p>\n

Democrats\u2019 path to winning back power in this year\u2019s midterms may run through a handful of districts like Ager\u2019s, making rural voters a priority for a party that needs to capture only a handful of swing seats to overcome Republicans\u2019 razor-thin House majority. But decades of data show that the Democratic Party has lost sway with rural voters \u2014 a shift Republicans gleefully highlight and a point that Ager is eager to discuss.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons that I felt frustrated by the Democratic Party is because it\u2019s just become such an urban party,\u201d Ager said in an interview at Hickory Nut Gap, the farm his family has owned for generations in Fairview, North Carolina, and where he has spent the last 25 years raising cattle, poultry and pigs. \u201cThere\u2019s just a disconnect from what it\u2019s like to live in rural America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ager is one of a handful of Democratic candidates with backgrounds in farming, fishing or agriculture who are running for Congress this year, and who see a rare opening for Democrats to make inroads among rural voters after President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs and the war in Iran have had an outsize impact on agriculture, including rising prices and market instability.<\/p>\n

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Pigs at Ager’s farm in 2025. (Allison Joyce\/For The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Ager is pitching himself as a product of agrarian values, which he defines as having a strong work ethic, centering family and working with your hands. At times, his inclination to position cities as cultural foils is more akin to the views typically associated with Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did feel a little bit frustrated with the party. It felt like they didn\u2019t understand my lifestyle out here,\u201d Ager said of other Democrats. \u201cA lot of the conversation around, like, plant-based meats and stuff like that felt a little bit like, \u2018What are you guys talking about?\u2019 People are just so academic and not tuned in to what\u2019s really going on out here in rural America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite that effort to distance himself from the national brand, Ager knows it\u2019s a tough sell with a D next to his name on the ballot. His opponent, two-term incumbent Rep. Chuck Edwards (R), is a strong fundraiser who\u2019s known for traversing the district in a mobile office to reach even the most remote constituents.<\/p>\n

A businessman who runs several McDonald\u2019s franchises, Edwards sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and had largely avoided the spotlight in Washington \u2014 until early May, when the congressman\u2019s team acknowledged<\/a> that he\u2019s under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. On Thursday, the committee publicly confirmed<\/a> that it is investigating Edwards over allegations regarding sexual harassment of former female staffers. <\/b><\/p>\n

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Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-North Carolina) speaks in Asheville in March 2025. (Sean Rayford\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Edwards declined to comment for this story. In a call with The Washington Post, his campaign consultant, Paul Shumaker, argued that the cultural differences between this district\u2019s voters and national Democrats are even starker than Ager described.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the Democratic Party stands is very inconsistent with the views and values of voters in North Carolina,\u201d Shumaker said, arguing that voters in the North Carolina district align more closely with Republicans on social issues, including abortion, immigration and LGBTQ rights.<\/p>\n

In this purple district, the unfolding controversy around Edwards\u2019s alleged behavior in office could make Ager\u2019s case easier. But Ager \u2014 the grandson of another farmer-turned-politician, former congressman Jamie Clarke \u2014 must still convince voters in this mountainous, agrarian part of the state that he has their back, unlike the Washington bureaucrats he said abandoned the district after the deadly Hurricane Helene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re frustrated, you can complain about it, or you can actually go do something,\u201d Ager said, when asked about his decision to run for Congress. \u201cComplain about stuff, go do it. And therefore, let\u2019s go see what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farmers were once a reliable voting bloc for Democrats. Southern rural voters, Midwest farmers and union-aligned working-class voters helped carry Jimmy Carter, a Democratic peanut farmer from Georgia, to the White House in 1976, but the party\u2019s appeal to these voters began to fade in the following decades.<\/p>\n

According to the Pew Research Center<\/a>, Republicans in 2000 held a narrow advantage among rural voters over Democrats \u2014 51 percent to 46. Today, that gap has more than tripled \u2014 the GOP now holds a 25-percentage-point advantage<\/a> among rural voters over Democrats. Trump won the rural population by 23 points in 2020, and 25 in 2024.<\/p>\n

The number of unaffiliated voters in North Carolina has exploded over the last 25 years. In this swing state, nearly 39 percent of voters are registered to no party, while Republicans and Democrats each hold about 30 percent of registrations.<\/p>\n

Ager argues that this turn away from Democrats is part of a broader disillusionment with government, which is why he avoids associating himself with his political party. At events, his campaign logo stands out by its bright-green color \u2014 no sign of the Democratic blue. He\u2019s campaigned alongside statehouse candidate Suzanne Gavenus, a Democrat married to a Republican judge who, in an interview, also heavily downplayed her party affiliation, saying she wants voters to \u201clearn about me before [they] see my label.\u201d And when asked if he would like national Democrats to join him at campaign rallies, Ager was noncommittal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, we haven\u2019t thought about [it],\u201d he said. \u201cI guess it could be good and bad, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ager speaks with guests at a campaign event on April 20 in Marion, North Carolina. (Allison Joyce\/For The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

North Carolina\u2019s 11th District, where Ager is running, is home to most of the western part of the state, folding together small Appalachian towns, the Blue Ridge Mountains and the heavily blue city of Asheville. The region \u2014 known for attracting retirees, artists and, more recently, remote workers and craft breweries \u2014 relies on an economy of agriculture and tourism.<\/p>\n

Ager points to Congress\u2019s inability to help North Carolina rebuild following Helene \u2014 which swept through the Appalachian region in September 2024, devastating entire towns and destroying key infrastructure with floods and mudslides \u2014 as a major factor behind his neighbors\u2019 disillusionment with Washington.<\/p>\n

He speaks from experience \u2014 the storm ravaged<\/a> <\/b>his farm, and as he crisscrossed the property, he pointed out bits and pieces that he has spent the last 18 months slowly putting back together. People in the region, he noted, are still living in campers, tents, trailers and on their neighbors\u2019 couches because they haven\u2019t been able to return to their own homes and businesses.<\/p>\n

As he kept a watchful eye over a litter of piglets in one of many reconstructed pens on his family farm, Ager argued that Washington left many in the district to rebuild on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to put it all back together ourselves,\u201d Ager said, noting that federal disaster relief aid for the state is slowly trickling in after long delays.<\/p>\n

While local and federal officials warned by early October<\/a> of 2024 that funding was insufficient to properly help North Carolina recover from Helene in its immediate aftermath, Congress did not pass legislation to provide relief until the end of that December. And, as The Post reported<\/a>, local governments in western North Carolina argued that reimbursement delays and administrative bottlenecks slowed the actual flow of money<\/a> from reaching communities and infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

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A view of the mountains in Marion. (Allison Joyce\/For The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A year after Helene, the Federal Emergency Management Agency still hadn\u2019t reimbursed<\/a> local governments for millions spent on cleanup and recovery, upending local budgets, hindering reconstruction, and keeping North Carolinians from returning to their homes and businesses.<\/p>\n

Barb Bewernitz, who leads a local arts nonprofit, said art galleries in Old Fort, North Carolina, and <\/b>orchards an hour\u2019s drive away in Henderson County were washed away.<\/p>

Read more GOP senator who defied Trump on impeachment faces voters, five years later<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything flooded,\u201d she said. \u201cTopsoil has washed away \u2026 [it\u2019s] just years of damage. You don\u2019t just come back in one or two years. It\u2019s a long-term recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Knight, an independent voter who owns a bookstore in the district, told The Post that he has lost faith in the federal government\u2019s ability to do what people \u201cexpect it to do.\u201d Knight said there is \u201cso much\u201d the region still needs following the devastation two years ago that many families and businesses still haven\u2019t been able to get back on their feet.<\/p>\n

\u201c[But] all I\u2019ve seen with this Trump administration is: no, no, no. Deny, deny, deny,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got money for wars all over the world. But we don\u2019t have money for the poor and for working-class people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 119th Congress includes 33 farmers, ranchers or cattle farm owners, as well as one almond orchard owner, a forester, a fruit orchard worker and a horse trainer, according to CQ Roll Call<\/a>, which tracks the occupation of each House member and Senator. But 140 members of the current House \u2014 31 percent \u2014 and nearly half of Senators have law degrees and practiced law, CQ found. Only 7 percent of Congress is made up of individuals with direct ties to agriculture \u2014 and the majority are Republicans.<\/p>\n

Matt Barron, a Democratic strategist who focuses on rural districts, said his party has not put in the time or monetary investment to organize to win voters with ties to farmland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t even create a rural desk at these party committees, which is sort of the first step of working with candidates and saying, \u2018Hey, we looked at your state or your district in these rural areas, and you should think about doing cost-effective rural radio drives or ads in rural weeklies,\u2019\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n

That would entail researching which festivals crown a Watermelon Queen in the South, or figuring out where to find the most popular lobster festival on the Maine coast, and advising candidates where to reach voters and how to engage them, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not rocket science,\u201d Barron added. \u201cIt\u2019s more a question of will.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bill Hill of Naknek, Alaska, is running as an independent for the U.S. House. (Bill Roth\/Anchorage Daily News\/Zuma Press Wire\/Reuters)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The lack of national party branding, investment and infrastructure has led other Democratic candidates with agricultural or rural ties to make a similar calculation to Ager. In Alaska, fisherman Bill Hill is running as an independent, despite aligning with Democratic positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver 60 percent of our voting population does not align itself with a party\u201d in Alaska, said Hill, who\u2019s running to unseat Rep. Nick Begich (R). \u201cAlaskans are tough to put in a little political box, and we speak more broadly to what\u2019s good for Alaskans and Americans, and we\u2019re not so focused on hyper-partisan issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill, who also worked as a teacher and unionized construction worker, is employing a populist message, saying in an interview that fishermen, farmers, union members and mechanics \u201cfeel left behind by a government that focuses on special interests, corporations and billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Montana\u2019s 1st District, at least two Democratic ranchers, including Matt Rains, are seeking departing Rep. Ryan Zinke\u2019s (R) seat. Rains, a veteran who works on a ranch his family has run since the 1800s, said he doesn\u2019t \u201creally lean in to the national Democratic message that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, he talks about Democrats\u2019 history in his state, invoking the creation of farm co-ops and measures that brought electric phones and fuel to small communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always had rural Montanans\u2019 best interests at heart,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of putting that spotlight back on that fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rebecca Cooke, a candidate for Congress in Wisconsin, speaks during a January town hall in La Crosse. (Kayla Wolf\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

And in Wisconsin, Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat who grew up on a dairy farm, is challenging Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R). She said she\u2019s campaigning as heavily in rural areas of the district as she is in urban places.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that the Democratic Party needs to do more of,\u201d she said. \u201cBut being able to speak the language of rural Wisconsin, you can\u2019t really manufacture that kind of authenticity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even before he launched his congressional campaign, Ager\u2019s name was a regular presence throughout the district. His family farm\u2019s products \u2014 grass-fed beef, beef tallow, eggs, pasture-raised chicken and bacon \u2014 line stores just a few miles away from the farm. At coffee shops and markets on the road that connects Fairview with Asheville, neighbors nodded in familiarity when asked about his campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people all over western North Carolina see me less in the context of politics and more as a farmer, as a business owner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does represent the values of this part of the state,\u201d said Johnny Merrell, a resident who, chatting while playing slot machines at a gas station, noted that the prices of food and gas have shot up in the region, stressing residents.<\/p>\n

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Johnny Merrell plays a game in April at a gas station in Fairview. (Allison Joyce\/For The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Although the impact of Trump\u2019s tariffs and the war in Iran have been felt nationally, rural areas of the country are more vulnerable to increased prices of animal feed, seeds, steel and aluminum. Retaliatory tariffs have also significantly reduced foreign demand for American agricultural goods, and the war has made the prices of gas and fertilizer skyrocket. Analysts at the World Bank suggest <\/a>that fertilizer costs could rise by about 31 percent this year, which would increase food prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe erratic kind of tariffs that we\u2019ve seen have been unhelpful for so many farmers all over,\u201d Ager said. \u201cFiguring out how to build your business model whenever the costs are erratic [because of a] whim of the administration becomes frustrating and challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Ager sees barriers with his own party.<\/p>\n

As he made his way toward a heard of his grass-fed cows, crossing the creek that cuts through his farm, Ager spoke about how Democrats have allowed a cultural divide to overshadow the real economic and practical concerns of voters like him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m talking to lots and lots of folks out in rural America, and it\u2019s funny, because I talk to people in the city, and they\u2019re like, \u2018How do you talk to these rural farmers?\u2019 You say, \u2018Hi, how\u2019s your mom doing?\u201d Ager said, with a chuckle.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost as if, Ager said, the Democratic Party forgot that, historically, it is the party of the working people.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd farmers are working people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But then, he adds: \u201cThere\u2019s just this, like, insecurity and self-righteousness [that] I feel like so many urban Democrats have that just felt like making me barf. I don\u2019t want to be anything part of that.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Sparks get off to fast start, hold off Tempo 99-95 behind Plum\u2019s 25 points<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In North Carolina, Jamie Ager is distancing himself from his national party to win a congressional seat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nA North Carolina farmer is testing whether Democrats can still win rural America - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=446\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A North Carolina farmer is testing whether Democrats can still win rural America - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In North Carolina, Jamie Ager is distancing himself from his national party to win a congressional seat.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=446\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-16T11:33:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9d0cb92d229fb8b6b41450f67a00b073-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"13 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=446#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=446\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"A North Carolina farmer is testing whether Democrats can still win rural America\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-16T11:33:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=446\"},\"wordCount\":2600,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=446#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/9d0cb92d229fb8b6b41450f67a00b073-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=446#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=446\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=446\",\"name\":\"A North Carolina farmer is testing whether Democrats can still win rural America - 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