But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Jennifer Balkcom
Republican · U.S. House, North Carolina District 11
–No Position Found
How this mark works
We track key votes on sending U.S. weapons and money to the government of Israel. A check means every tracked vote they cast came down against sending more, on the side of peace and de-escalation. A question mark means a mixed record: they sided with sending up to half of the time. An X means they voted to send more weapons and money in over half of their tracked votes, even as the way those weapons and dollars were being used became more and more obvious. At exactly half, money this election cycle from a lobbying group we track, or an endorsement from a group that backs sending weapons, makes it an X. Only votes actually cast are counted. Where a candidate has no recorded votes on these bills, the mark comes instead from a reviewed reading of their public record (money from the lobbying groups we track, endorsements, and their own words since January 26, 2024). There an X also covers fully backing the conduct of the war by the government of Israel without significant reservations, and a question mark also covers speaking about Israel without saying clearly where they stand on U.S. weapons and funding. A dash means No Position Found: we found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.
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Jennifer Balkcom is the Republican nominee in North Carolina's 11th District, the mountain seat in the state's far west. She has represented Henderson County in the North Carolina House since 2023, works as a mortgage loan officer, and grew up on her family's apple farm. Representative Chuck Edwards won the Republican primary in March 2026 and then ended his campaign, and on August 10, 2026 the district's Republican executive committee chose her to replace him on the ballot. She faces Jamie Ager, the Democratic nominee, and Travis Groo, the Libertarian, on November 3.
You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask Balkcom directly, or at a candidate forum, and send us the reply: it goes on this page in her own words, which is worth more than anything we could write about her.
Research log
The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.
Every page named below was opened and read on 2026-09-24 unless the entry says otherwise. Her campaign site was read in full: the home page and the about page, which are the two pages its site map lists. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. Balkcom has never held federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks is hers, and no funding from the committees this site tracks is recorded on this record.
U.S. military aid and weapons to the government of Israel
Nothing located in the position band, from 2024-01-26 onward. No statement by her about arms transfers, Foreign Military Financing, security assistance or any bill on those subjects appears on her campaign site, in her 2026 Ballotpedia questionnaire, in her statement on entering the race, or in any report of her campaign read for this card.
[Reaction window, 2023-10-10] North Carolina House Resolution 897, "Support for Israel.", adopted October 10, 2023, lists her among its sponsors. Its adopted text is "A HOUSE RESOLUTION urging Congress to support the Nation of Israel in response to the unprovoked attacks." and its first section reads: "The United States Congress is urged to offer full and unequivocal support of Israel financially and otherwise for as long as it takes for Israel to bring justice in light of the unprovoked attacks on innocent Israeli civilians." The words are the resolution's, adopted by the chamber, and not a statement written by her.
[Reaction window, 2023-10-11] A post on her campaign's Facebook page, dated October 11, 2023 and posted from the North Carolina State Legislative Building, reads in full: "Yesterday I was proud to co-sponsor and vote for unanimous passage of House Resolution 897, which urges the U.S. Congress to support the nation of Israel in response to the cowardly attacks by Hamas. #NCHouse #Israel #nchouse117"
U.S. aid to Palestinians
Nothing located in the position band.
Characterization of the conflict
Nothing located in the position band.
[Reaction window, 2023-10-09] A post on her campaign's Facebook page, "Praying for Israel...", dated October 9, 2023, recalls her January 2020 trip to Israel ("Praying for Israel... I went to Israel in January of 2020. It was by God alone that I was able to see the Holy Land.") and ends: "Pray for Israel. I will stand with Israel."
Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying
Nothing located, at any date. No statement by her about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or any other advocacy organization on this subject was found. Her 2026 Ballotpedia questionnaire lists her endorsements, none of them an organization on this subject.
Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what America sends)
[Position, 2024-04-30 to 2024-07-01] North Carolina House Bill 942, the SHALOM Act, lists her among its co-sponsors, after its four primary sponsors. It was filed April 30, 2024, passed the House on second reading 105 to 4 on May 8, 2024, and was signed on July 1, 2024 as Session Law 2024-27. Its ratified text reads: "North Carolina adopts the Working Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance on May 26, 2016, including the contemporary examples of antisemitism set forth therein, as a tool and guide for training, education, recognizing, and combating antisemitic hate crimes or discrimination and for tracking and reporting antisemitic incidents in this State." A second subsection says it shall not be construed to diminish any right protected under the First Amendment. The bill page does not show the date on which she was added as a sponsor.
What the campaign site and own pages say
[Undated; read 2026-09-24] Her campaign site's home page, headed "MOUNTAIN MADE. FARM RAISED.", is four paragraphs of biography: an eighth-generation Western North Carolinian raised on her family's apple farm in Henderson County, a career in banking and finance since 1998, now a mortgage loan officer, and a member of the North Carolina House for Henderson County. It has no issues page and says nothing about foreign policy. The site map, updated September 2, 2026, lists only the home page and an about page.
[Undated; read 2026-09-24] The site's about page, https://www.jenniferbalkcom.com/about , carries first-person text by a different person, Amanda McKinney, who describes herself as a Yakima County Commissioner running for Congress in Washington State. Nothing on it concerns Balkcom, nothing from it is used here, and it does not mention Israel.
[Position, submitted 2026-01-28; read 2026-09-24] Her Ballotpedia page carries her 2026 Candidate Connection survey, submitted January 28, 2026 for her state House race. Her three key messages are public safety, agriculture and "Securing infrastructure and other critical funding for Henderson County"; the area of policy she names as her passion is fairness for women and girls in athletic competition. It mentions no foreign policy subject. The same page records that she was born in Henderson County, that she won the Republican primary for her state House seat on March 3, 2026 and then withdrew from that race, and that she was selected as the congressional nominee on August 10, 2026.
[Position, 2026-08-10] NC Newsline's report by Christine Zhu quotes her statement on entering the race: "After much prayer, reflection, and conversations with my family, I’m in," and "We must hold this seat, preserve our mountain values, work with President Trump’s Administration to continue rebuilding Western North Carolina, and make sure Washington never forgets the people who call these mountains home."
[Read 2026-09-24] The North Carolina State Board of Elections' candidate list for the November 3, 2026 election, printed September 21, 2026, lists three names under "US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISTRICT 11": "BALKCOM, JENNIFER CAPPS" (ballot name Jennifer Capps Balkcom, Republican, filed 08/11/2026), "AGER, JAMES PETERSON" (Jamie Ager, Democrat) and "GROO, TRAVIS JASON" (Travis Groo, Libertarian).
[Read 2026-09-24] Ballotpedia's page for the 2026 election in North Carolina's 11th District says in its results table: "Jamie Ager, Jennifer Balkcom, and Travis Groo are running in the general election for U.S. House North Carolina District 11 on November 3, 2026." It lists Chuck Edwards and John Rogers, an independent, as withdrawn or disqualified; the page's opening sentence still names Rogers among those running, and the State Board's list, which does not include him, is followed here. It records that Edwards suspended his campaign on August 5, 2026 after the House Ethics Committee recommended his censure.
Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them
Her account on X, https://x.com/JenBalkcom , whose posts need a signed-in reader. The Carolina Journal embeds a September 8, 2026 post from it about her advertisement.
C-SPAN's recording of her speech at a campaign fundraiser in Hendersonville, published September 16, 2026, at https://www.c-span.org/event/campaign-2026/us-house-candidate-jennifer-balkcom-r-nc-speaks-at-campaign-event/447178 . The page's description opened on 2026-09-24; on 2026-09-26 the page said "The requested video could not be found", so the recording is no longer available there.
Mountain Xpress's report of her selection, https://mountainx.com/news/politics-elections/gop-picks-balkcom-to-run-in-place-of-edwards-for-nc-congressional-seat/ , which could not be opened. NC Newsline's report of the same meeting was read instead.
Not on the card, and why
House Resolution 897 of October 10, 2023 and her Facebook posts of October 2023. They fall in the weeks after the October 7 attack and are set out above with their dates.
The biography of a Washington State candidate on her site's about page. It is not about her.
Her record on public safety, women's sports, parents' rights, agriculture, foreign ownership of farmland and hurricane recovery: out of scope, listed above so the shape of her record is checkable.
Jamie Ager's and Travis Groo's records, and Chuck Edwards's. They belong on their own cards.
Sources retrieved for this card (address; opened or could not open; date)
https://www.jenniferbalkcom.com/ and https://www.jenniferbalkcom.com/about (opened; 2026-09-24; the whole site per its site map)
https://www.whkp.com/news/congressional-candidte-ager-balkcom-held-thursday-night-at-blue-ridge-community-college (opened; 2026-09-24 and 2026-09-26; published 2026-08-27, forum held August 27)
https://www.facebook.com/VoteBalkcom/ and the two post addresses above (preview text only on 2026-09-24; the page and both posts opened in full on 2026-09-26)
https://www.c-span.org/event/campaign-2026/us-house-candidate-jennifer-balkcom-r-nc-speaks-at-campaign-event/447178 (description only; 2026-09-24; video no longer available on 2026-09-26)
https://mountainx.com/news/politics-elections/gop-picks-balkcom-to-run-in-place-of-edwards-for-nc-congressional-seat/ (could not open; 2026-09-24)
https://legiscan.com/NC/bill/H942/2023 (could not open; 2026-09-24; the legislature's own bill page was read instead)
This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-24, not a claim that no other statement exists.
But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and
funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps.
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