North Carolina State Rep. Jennifer Balkcom is running to replace retiring, censured Rep. Chuck Edwards, representing a Western North Carolina district that looked set to flip Democratic short of Edwards' decision to stand down.
And it looks like she's getting some help from a powerful DC lobby: Credit unions.
Per Politico Influence:
America’s Credit Unions and its political action committee are planning to spend a record $10 million to influence the 2026 midterm results... The PAC is backing Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) in their respective Senate races. It also identified the reelection bids of Reps. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), Susie Lee (D-Nev.), Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) and David Valadao (R-Calif.) as priorities, as well as North Carolina Republican state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom’s campaign for Congress. (emphasis ours)
Here's why this is interesting: North Carolina Republicans are typically pretty friendly to the banking sector, because of the ginormous presence of Bank of America in Charlotte.
For example, according to Open Secrets, in 2022– the first time Edwards ran, and the only time he really had a race to win– the banking sector gave $13,000 to him, of which $8,500 was PAC money. An additional $5,800 came from savings banks and savings and loans. The financial sector writ large was the number one source of donations to Edwards that year, but banks specifically supplied about one percent of his total fundraising.
In 2024, Bank of America employees gave $25,336 to the North Carolina GOP.
In 2020, the last time Thom Tillis was up for re-election, they donated $64,906 (inclusive of a $10,000 PAC donation).
But banks and credit unions have been locked in a lengthy– and frankly, boring as hell– war over a couple of wonky issues in Washington, DC.
First, banks hate, hate, hate that credit unions operate as tax-exempt nonprofits while banks get whacked with federal corporate income taxes. Banks think this tilts competition towards credit unions (who, by the way, have been buying up some community banks).
Second, banks have to comply with the Community Reinvestment Act, which free marketeers complained during the 2008-2009 financial crisis had helped create fundamental problems in the banking system by steering mortgages towards non-creditworthy borrowers.
Otherwise put, there are a lot of reasons why credit unions would want Balkcom on their side.
Now, banks including Bank of America might also be funneling money to Balkcom. We don't know that yet because she's such a new candidate, zero is showing up in donations for her with the FEC.
But as of now, it looks like the credit unions are determined to make friends with her and, probably, exert some additional influence in a way they simply did not appear to with her predecessor. The big question is, will it work?
As an old friend and fellow Tar Heel used to remind us, the key to being a successful politician is being able to take their money and vote against them anyway. Unlike Edwards or Madison Cawthorn before him, Balkcom certainly has fewer reasons to do the bidding of her donors; she is currently carrying none of the ethical baggage either man had, and seems exceedingly unlikely to wind up copycatting them, for our money.
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