Fundraising picks up in NC-11 congressional race
As candidates gear up for Primary Election votes in March, fundraising becomes increasingly important on both sides of the aisle.
File photo
With third-quarter fundraising reports now filed, campaign finance records show sharp contrasts in both fundraising totals and donor bases among candidates in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District as they look to Primary Election contests in March.
Incumbent Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards reported raising $233,163 from January through September, with no personal contributions to his own campaign.
Edwards spent $136,414 and ended the quarter with $205,514 in cash on hand. Of his 87 total contributions, 18 were from within North Carolina and 69 from out-of-state donors. Nearly half of his support — 46 contributions — came from political action committees, including AIPAC, Anheuser-Busch, Baxter Healthcare, Boeing, CSX Railroad, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s and Walmart.
His Republican challenger, former Green Beret Adam Smith, reported $29,633 in contributions during a brief fundraising period between Sept. 22 and the end of the quarter on Sept. 30. Smith spent $4,162 and retained $25,470. Of his 17 contributions, three came from North Carolina and 14 from out of state. Smith reported no personal contributions but did receive $10,000 from GatorPAC of Mississippi, a group that aims to elect veterans and “America first” candidates.
“We have a two-fold strategy. Without getting into the details so we don’t give too much away to the incumbent, the first piece is on the ground — talking to people, shaking hands, building a team,” Smith told The Smoky Mountain News. “It gives people a chance to hear a message that is different, and that leads to more contributions.”
That first piece — retail politics on a neighborhood level — is important because the main complaint Smith has been hearing on the ground is about Edwards’ lack of engagement over the three years he’s been in office. Despite serving on the powerful House appropriations committee, Edwards has faced criticism for failing to deliver federal funds necessary for recovery from Hurricane Helene, which primarily affected his district.
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The second piece, Smith said, is to continue to build strategic partnerships with individuals and organizations who believe in his mission.
“The difference between the incumbent’s campaign and ours is that we want to be a voice for people of Western North Carolina, not a voice for corporate special interests,” Smith said.
On the Democratic side, Fairview farmer Jamie Ager leads the field with $340,511 raised between July 31 and Sept. 30. He reported no personal contributions, spent $112,789 and had $227,722 on hand at the close of the period. Ager’s 678 total contributions included 313 through Dem fundraising platform ActBlue, 287 contributions from within North Carolina and 72 from outside the state. His PAC support came from Defeat Extremists PAC ($1,000), the Save Democracy PAC ($5,000) and the Voter Protection Project ($1,000).
For context, the last Democrat to post comparable early fundraising totals was Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, who raised $332,993 in the third quarter of 2021 en route to a whopping $2.3 million haul by the end of her campaign — which ended in a nine-point defeat by Edwards in November 2022. Ager is the only candidate in the race to top Beach-Ferrara’s Q3 results, however her third quarter total helped her reach $930,000 cycle-to-date at the time.
Keeping up that pace is critical, according to Ager.
“It’s a lot of work, phone calls, connecting with people,” Ager said. “Certainly, we’re not through all the lists we have to tap into, and a lot of folks we’ve talked to haven’t given the max yet. I believe in the product, and I’m not afraid to go out and sell that product to the people who believe in the future of our country.”
Ager also has the most out-of-state donors thus far, which can lead to criticism from opponents about conflicting loyalties. Ager’s not having any of that.
“Clearly, you need as much money as you can, and I have relationships all over country through the regenerative agriculture network, and customers too,” he said. “These are friends and they believe in my campaign.”
Henderson County physician Richard Hudspeth, who began fundraising nearly two months after Ager, reported raising $88,129 for the quarter, including $7,000 of his own money and 38 contributions from ActBlue. He spent $3,771 and had $84,357 remaining. Of his 126 individual contributions, 73 came from within North Carolina and 14 from outside the state, with no PAC contributions reported.
“We’ve matched [Ager’s] total week-for-week since we’ve been in the race, so I think it’s just about time and about people learning about my campaign,” Hudspeth said. “The other important thing is the vast majority of our contributions are from within North Carolina, and district support has been fantastic as well, so I think we’re well-placed to get the necessary dollars that will create a successful campaign.”
Hudspeth said he was working hard to elevate his presence, which he expects to translate directly to support.
“We just need to keep doing what we’re doing, harder and longer, and we’ll see what the next quarter reports say as we become more involved in this campaign,” he said.
Zelda Briarwood, of Canton, raised $26,913 between May 29 and Sept. 30, including a $700 personal contribution and a $12,570 loan to their campaign. Briarwood reported $2,931 in expenses and $23,982 in cash on hand. Briarwood received only three contributions outside of the personal loan — two from North Carolina and one from Massachusetts — and reported no PAC support.
“The first portion of our campaign has been focusing primarily on traveling and talking with people. As we go into November and December, we are going to be ramping up,” Briarwood said. “At the end of the day, we have several paths to victory for every level of fundraising that we [end up with], and we’re constantly updating and constantly working with the numbers.”
The third quarter fundraising report from Jacob Lawrence, who made quite a splash with his viral AI-generated campaign launch ad and bills himself as “the young guy” — he’s only 26 — wasn’t available as of press time because he said he’d mailed it to the Federal Elections Commission. According to an FEC release, paper reports will not be processed during the ongoing federal shutdown, but candidates won’t be penalized.
Lawrence, who grew up in North Carolina and has a degree in economics from Brigham Young University, currently works with the United Nations’ World Food Program, primarily supporting small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. He told The Smoky Mountain News he’s raised around $12,000, with “probably 95%” of those donations coming from within North Carolina.
“We definitely understand at the end of the day it takes money to win, so we’re looking at call time strategy, we’re looking at getting digital going to a greater extent, we’ve just launched socials and things of that nature,” he said.
The final Dem candidate, Paul Maddox, has not yet registered with the FEC. No other information was available; however, Maddox told SMN he does plan an official campaign launch soon.
Candidate filing for the 2026 General Election begins Dec. 1. The Primary Election will be held March 3, 2026. The General Election will be held Nov. 3, 2026.
