Politics
Drag Performers Sue GOP Campaign Over AI‑Generated Ad Claiming Barn Dance with Drag Queen
By John Russell
Two drag performers from Western North Carolina, Nova and Divinity Holeburn (who also performs as Divine, the Bearded Lady), have sent cease‑and‑desist letters to the campaign of Republican congressional candidate Jennifer Balkcom after an AI‑generated advertisement used their likenesses to depict a barn dance featuring drag queens. The ad was paid for by the National Republican Congressional Campaign, approved by Balkcom, and posted by the North Carolina Republican Party’s official X account last week. It shows AI‑generated images of Democrat Jamie Ager dancing with a drag queen in a barn while children watch. Nova told WLOS that the scenes never occurred, adding, “None of it was real. I’ve never met the man in my life. I ain’t never been to a barn dance in my life.”
Ager’s campaign released a statement saying the ad is AI‑generated and accusing Balkcom of using false imagery to attack Jamie. Campaign manager Grayson Barnette said, “Our opponent is attacking Jamie with 100% fake, AI‑generated ads. She can’t win on the truth, so she is using AI to lie.” The ad appears to have manipulated footage from a barn dance at Ager and wife Amy’s Hickory Nut Gap Farms, which the Agers use for corporate events, birthdays, and weddings.
North Carolina has no laws requiring political ads to disclose when they are AI‑generated. The ad’s central claim that Ager “hosted a drag queen barn dance” is based on an October 16 report from Breitbart. That report, however, did not state that Ager hosted a drag queen barn dance; it described a family‑friendly “Fantasy Festival” held on May 4, 2019, at the Agers’ barn, which featured the Beer City Sisters, an Asheville chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
The ad also names Sister Domina Trix and Sister Helen Bedd, taken from a May 30 Instagram post showing new members’ nametags. It further claims that Ager wrote a check to Blue Ridge Pride, whose festival featured Divine Holeburn and Will Pounder. FEC records show the Ager campaign donated $5,000 to Blue Ridge Pride in July. Blue Ridge Pride clarified that Ager’s sponsorship application was denied and the funds returned, and that the festival is a “sacred space for LGBTQ+ expression, not a platform for political candidates.”
Both Nova and Holeburn issued cease‑and‑desist notices to Balkcom’s campaign. Balkcom’s campaign did not address the use of AI in the ad; instead it defended the ad’s claims, stating that “Liberal Jamie Ager is sending his left‑wing army to attack his political opponents after being exposed for hosting events exposing young children to inappropriate performances from individuals like Sister Domina Trix and Sister Helen Bedd.”
The ad is part of a broader trend of Republican candidates using anti‑LGBTQ+ rhetoric to mobilize conservative voters in the 2026 midterms. The race for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, where Ager and Balkcom are competing, is a predominantly Republican district that has not elected a Democrat since 2007, though the Cook Political Report currently leans Democrat.
Nova said the ad is hurtful to the entire LGBTQ community in western North Carolina, noting that the idea that drag queens want to indoctrinate children is “simply not the truth.”