North Carolina Republican Party officials have selected state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom to replace Rep. Chuck Edwards on the ballot, after he withdrew from the race in the wake of a House Ethics Committee report that he sexually harassed two of his staffers.
“Representative Jennifer Balkcom has what it takes to be a strong voice for Western North Carolina in Washington,” Jason Simmons, chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, said in a statement. “She is committed to fighting for our families, defending our conservative values, and making sure Western North Carolina has a strong advocate in Congress.”
The North Carolina Republican Party’s 11th Congressional District Executive Committee met in a closed-door meeting Monday night to select between multiple candidates: Ken McKim, Chad Nesbitt, Matthew Burril, Kristie Sluder and Balkcom. According to North Carolina GOP rules, each member of the committee must vote for their preferred candidate, and whichever candidate gets over 50% of the vote first becomes the nominee.
Balkcom, who has served in the state’s House of Representatives since 2023, will face Democratic nominee Jamie Ager in November.
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Last week, the House Ethics Committee recommended that Edwards be censured and found “substantial evidence” that the North Carolina Republican “violated the spirit of the House’s prohibition on sexual harassment and unwanted advances through his conduct” toward two female staffers in his office.
Edwards, the committee said in its report, “acknowledged” that his behavior “could be viewed as inappropriate.” He gave the staffers expensive jewelry, designer purses, vacations, guns and dinners.
In 2022, Edwards ousted a controversial Republican incumbent, Madison Cawthorn, and was viewed as a safer candidate to represent the district, which stretches across most of the western part of the state. But his own ethics issues have caused headaches for GOP leaders. Republicans in the House and the Senate had privately pushed Edwards to drop out from the race shortly after the ethics panel released its findings.
The race for North Carolina’s 11th District is one of two competitive House contests in the state. House Democrats’ campaign arm has been targeting the seat, with Ager being added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program in February.
This story has been updated to include a comment from the North Carolina Republican Party chair.
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