A Henderson County farm girl who gets things done

Jennifer Capps Balkcom has lived in Henderson County her entire life. She grew up on the family farm, graduated from East Henderson High School, and earned an associate degree from Blue Ridge Community College while working her way up as a bank branch manager and mortgage professional.

She and her husband Clint are raising their family in the same mountains that shaped her. Before public office she served her neighbors as a volunteer: vice president of the Hendersonville Women’s Club and Hendersonville Lions Club, treasurer of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Western North Carolina, and board service with the Henderson County Education Foundation, AdventHealth Foundation, St. Gerard House, and The Store House.

A record in Raleigh

Voters elected Jennifer to the North Carolina House in 2022 and sent her back in 2024. In the General Assembly she has served as:

• Chair, Appropriations — Agriculture, Natural and Economic Resources
• Chair, Insurance
• Vice Chair, Appropriations
• Vice Chair, House Select Committee on Helene Recovery
• Member, Agriculture and Environment; Commerce and Economic Development; Education K-12

She helped secure local infrastructure dollars, including water and sewer funding for Hendersonville, and advocated for $5 million in state support for Asheville’s Veterans Restoration Quarters. After Hurricane Helene she helped open an aid warehouse in Henderson County and sponsored disaster-recovery legislation that became law.

Jennifer was a primary sponsor of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, supported the Parents’ Bill of Rights and school choice, and introduced legislation to keep adversarial foreign governments from buying North Carolina farmland.

Why Congress. Why now.

When the 11th District needed a replacement candidate in August 2026, Jennifer said she had not planned to go to Washington. After prayer, family conversations, and a hard look at what Western North Carolina still needs after Helene, she stepped forward.

“This race is too important to sit out. 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.”