A new AI-generated attack ad supporting Jennifer Balkcom, the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, accuses Democratic nominee Jamie Ager of hosting a barn dance with drag queens and children.
The ad, paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee and approved by Balkcom, was posted to the North Carolina Republican Party’s official X account on October 22.
The ad shows Ager speaking into a microphone, with a Progress Pride flag hanging on a barn wall behind him. “Wanna know what we need more of in Washington, D.C.? Barn dances!” he says, as ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” starts playing.
The ad then shows drag queens dancing while other attendees, including frightened-looking children, mill about the barn.
“Jamie Ager hosted a drag queen barn dance featuring Sister Dominatrix and Sister Helen Bedd in his barn. With kids,” the ad’s narrator says, citing a story from right-wing news site Breitbart about a 2019 “fantasy festival” for families and children at Ager’s family farm.
The festival advertised an appearance by the Beer City Sisters, a now-defunct Asheville chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag nun organization.
“Last month, Ager wrote a check to Blue Ridge Pride, whose ‘family-friendly’ festival featured Divine Holeburn and Will Pounder,” the narrator continues, as images of drag queens dancing with men flash on the screen.
“Jamie Ager talks like you and me on TV, but he’s dancing with they/them,” the ad concludes, showing an AI-generated depiction of Ager dancing with Asheville-based drag queen Nova.
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There is no disclaimer that the ad was AI-generated. North Carolina does not currently have a law requiring political advertisements to disclose when they are generated using artificial intelligence.
Blue Ridge Pride said it rejected Ager’s application to sponsor its 2026 festival and returned the money, according to the Carolina Journal.
“Our opponent is attacking Jamie with 100% fake, AI-generated ads,” Ager campaign manager Grayson Barnette said, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. “She can’t win on the truth, so she is using AI to lie. It’s insulting to the intelligence of voters in western North Carolina.”
“I’ve never met the man in my life,” Nova, whose likeness appears in the ad but who is not named, told Asheville ABC affiliate WLOS. “I’m going to be honest with you: I’ve never been to a barn dance in my life.”
Nova said Balkcom’s campaign did not contact her before using her likeness in the ad. She said the ad harms LGBTQ people throughout western North Carolina by promoting false, bigoted stereotypes that gay men and drag performers pose a danger to children or seek to indoctrinate them.
Nova sent Balkcom’s campaign a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the ad be taken down, but told WLOS the campaign has not responded. The ad continues to air on television and remains available on YouTube.
Nova warned that the problem with the AI-generated ad extends beyond whether it is legally permissible.
“We teeter on that line of when is it okay just because it’s legal, and when are y’all going to start creating other preposterous storylines about gay people to fit into your narrative,” she said.
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