Some of NC’s weirdest and worst political ads probably aren’t on your TV | Opinion
We’ve all seen the ads in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race. We’re all probably tired of them, too. It’s not exactly pleasant to hear talk of pedophiles, murderers and rapists while you’re trying to watch a football game.
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But some of the most notable political ads in this election are ones that most of us will never see, because they’re only airing in certain parts of the state.
Look at the 11th Congressional District in Western North Carolina, where the ads are just as interesting as the race itself. There’s some weird ads, like one that was recently launched by the National Republican Congressional Committee to support Jennifer Balkcom. In the ad, Balkcom sits beside her mother, who is identified on screen as “Momma.”
“Mom raised us on her own. She taught us to be strong,” Balkcom says in the ad. “And when someone broke into our house, she shot ‘em!”
“You break into my house, you’re going to get shot,” her mom says. Well, OK then.
Balkcom then tells us that her mom is a “fighter,” which gives her mother the perfect segue to tell us how Balkcom will “fight” for Hurricane Helene recovery, health care and lower costs.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has started running a pretty unique ad of its own to support Balkcom’s opponent, Jamie Ager. The ad opens with Ager standing onstage in what is presumably a barn-like space.
“Do you know what we need more of in Washington, D.C.?” Ager cries out to the crowd.
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Sanity? Stability? Politicians who actually get things done?
“Barn dances!” Ager says.
The ad then tells us that “politicians just dance with the lobbyists,” but Ager will “take a good mountain hoedown any day” while people happily dance around the barn. It’s certainly clever, and fun.
Both ads are unique, and they probably will resonate with people in western North Carolina, who likely want a representative that resonates with them and their values. We’ve gotten used to seeing attack ads and nationalized, hyperpartisan campaigns. But in this district, the ads are strictly local. The candidates are choosing to connect with voters by highlighting their own rural, mountain roots, hence the talk of barn dancing and shooting burglars. Perhaps most importantly, they’re memorable, and they get people talking.
On the other side of the state, the DCCC is hoping to push Rep. Don Davis to victory in the district that Republicans tried to gerrymander away from him. In part, that means convincing people that his Republican opponent, Laurie Buckhout, isn’t fit for the job, which in some cases has been rather bruising. One ad features bodycam footage from Buckhout’s DUI arrest in 2017, which she apparently tried to talk herself out of by invoking her connection to a two-star general at the Pentagon.
But it also means distancing himself from his party as much as possible, including on the issue of transgender athletes, which some Democrats have steered away from. In one ad, Davis says there’s “real concerns about fairness and safety” in sports, which is why “states should decide what’s right for protecting women and girls, and North Carolina has decided.” The ad may be a direct response to a Republican-sponsored ad that accused Davis of “fighting for they/them, not us.” Some will say that Davis is giving into Republican bigotry on trans issues — and in a way, he is — but it also may be the kind of stance he has to take to win reelection in a red district.
There aren’t just ads for federal races, either. Ads have hit the airwaves in some competitive state legislative races, too. In Senate District 7, which is in New Hanover County, incumbent Sen. Michael Lee has aired an extremely disturbing ad that uses AI depictions of his Democratic opponent. The ad shows his opponent — or the AI version of her — contorting herself in various yoga poses, staring weirdly into the camera, meditating and banging a gong. The ad concludes by saying “Jessica Bichler — she’s just bonkers.” Even putting the use of AI aside, it’s pretty wild that, in 2026, a candidate is running an ad that calls his female opponent crazy. The bar for decency in political ads is pretty low these days, but we should expect better than that.
Deputy Opinion Editor Paige Masten covers politics and the 2026 elections for The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer.
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