Why Reps. Dan Bishop and Jeff Jackson are leaving DC to run for NC attorney general
In one of the most closely watched races for state attorney general across the country this year, both candidates are North Carolina lawyers serving in Congress who want to return to state government.
Dan Bishop and Jeff Jackson quickly emerged as two of North Carolina’s most prominent and vocal members of Congress after being elected in 2019 and 2022, respectively. But after relatively brief tenures in a Washington that is mired in gridlock, they’re running for one of the most high-profile and influential elected offices in the state.
The role and impact of the office has been in the national spotlight this summer as Vice President Kamala Harris and many of the Democrats floated as possible picks for her running mate, including North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, previously served as the attorneys general of their states.
Two recent attorneys general in North Carolina, Cooper and Mike Easley, both went on to serve two terms as governor, and the incumbent right now, Josh Stein, was the first major candidate to jump into the governor’s race at the beginning of last year.
The focus on the attorney general’s office this year comes as voters also head to the polls to elect a new governor and decide the balance of power in the General Assembly, where GOP lawmakers secured supermajorities last year that have allowed them to enact 26 bills over Cooper’s vetoes.
Both Jackson and Bishop served in the General Assembly before running for Congress, where they developed national profiles and became well-recognized newcomers in their parties.
While Jackson, a Democrat, faced newly drawn district lines that would’ve made reelection this year almost impossible, Bishop, a Republican, occupied a safe GOP-leaning seat from which he could have easily run for another term.
Still, they both decided to leave Washington to pursue a major opportunity at the state level.
“Congress is not a fun place to be,” said Susan Roberts, a political science professor at Davidson College. “There’s so many different allegiances, and it can get so hyperpartisan, where you don’t cross the aisle for anything.”
A ‘pipeline’ from Congress to state attorney general
Jackson and Bishop aren’t alone in leaving Congress to run for the office of state attorney general.
The Associated Press noted in February that a “pipeline” from Congress to attorney general has emerged in the past decade, with five sitting attorneys general of Maryland, Minnesota, Arkansas, Idaho, and Indiana all having previously served in Congress.
James Tierney, a former attorney general of Maine from 1981 to 1991 who teaches about the role of state attorneys general at Harvard Law School, said “there aren’t many jobs left in government where you can actually do something.”
“You have a couple congressmen giving up their jobs to run for attorney general, and that clearly is a national trend, people leaving other jobs that in the past might have appeared to have been more able to have a bigger impact,” Tierney said.
“So, people say, ‘That’s a job where you can actually do something, you don’t have to ask a committee, you can just make the decision yourself, and make an impact.’”
As the state’s top law enforcement official, the attorney general leads the N.C. Department of Justice and represents the state in all legal matters. The attorney general can also intervene in court proceedings at both the state and federal level, and handles criminal appeals from state trial courts.
North Carolina’s attorney general’s race is expected to be one of the most competitive and expensive races on the ballot this year, with both candidates raising millions of dollars, and national groups for both parties slated to inject millions more into the race in the coming weeks.
A new poll released by AARP shows Jackson has a small lead with 47% of the voters, The N&O reported. But Bishop follows by a few points, with 43%. The poll was conducted in mid-September with voters of all ages. At that time, 10% of those polled said they remained undecided about who they would vote for.
Voters age 50 and older seemed to be in favor of Bishop while Jackson’s overall lead is a result of voters younger than 50.
Despite Republicans winning back control of the North Carolina legislature in 2010, and winning the governor’s race in 2012, the last time a Republican won a race for attorney general was in 1896.
Recent contests for the state’s top law enforcement position have been exceedingly close, however. In 2020, Stein defeated Republican Jim O’Neill by just 13,622 votes, or 0.26%.
How would Jackson and Bishop approach the job?
Since launching their campaigns last year, Jackson and Bishop have outlined a number of issues they will seek to address if they win.
Jackson has previously said it’s the attorney general’s responsibility to “stand between the people of the state and those that mean them harm,” and has said he’ll use the office to “defend our kids from fentanyl and keep them safe online, go after scammers who target our bank accounts, and corporations who break the rules and pollute our water.”
“The position of Attorney General is the best job in public service if what you really want to do is stand up for people,” Jackson told The News & Observer in a statement. “This job isn’t about partisanship. It’s simply about being a shield for the public, protecting them against those who mean them harm.”
Jackson said that while Congress “can be a very partisan place,” the attorney general’s job is to be nonpartisan, adding that “it’s not about left versus right, it’s just about doing what’s right.”
“That’s been my whole approach to public service as a soldier, prosecutor, and legislator,” Jackson said. “I think that makes me a good fit for the office of Attorney General, and it’s how I would approach the job.”
Bishop, on the other hand, has said he’s running to “reinvigorate and restore a culture of law and order” and to support law enforcement across the state to combat violent crime.
He’s also touted the GOP-controlled legislature’s efforts to compel sheriffs in largely Democratic counties to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in cases where people who are in the country illegally are arrested and the federal agency is seeking to take custody of them.
In a statement, Bishop said that while members of Congress and state lawmakers make policy, the attorney general’s job “is almost the precise opposite of that,” and is supposed to be to “enforce the laws as written with no regard whatsoever for politics or personal beliefs.”
Bishop said that in the past decade, Democratic attorneys general in North Carolina “valued their political ambitions over their duty to enforce the law,” citing voter ID and election laws, and a law preventing felons from voting, as examples of laws passed by the legislature that Democrats should have defended.
He added that Jackson “has signaled he will take the same approach.”
“The running joke in Raleigh is ‘AG’ stands for ‘Almost Governor.’ That won’t be the case for me,” Bishop said. “I am the only candidate in this race who was not forced to seek another office and I will not treat the office of attorney general as a stepping stone.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
