Jeff Jackson believes NC voters will back his ‘calm, sensible’ approach in AG’s race
Jeff Jackson’s social media-savvy strategy to reach voters and get his message out in this year’s N.C. attorney general’s race has been based on a simple philosophy: voters are tired of empty rhetoric, and want straightforward communication from their elected representatives.
“I agree that trust in our political leadership probably has never been lower,” the first-term Democratic congressman told The News & Observer earlier this year, ahead of the March primary.
Jackson said his approach to campaigning in a low-trust environment was to “respond with a higher level of transparency” about everything from what was in legislation he was voting on in Congress, to something “as simple as saying, ‘here’s what I did today, here’s what I’m going to do tomorrow.’”
Most of that outreach has been through TikTok, where Jackson has amassed 2.2 million followers, and his videos explaining the latest bills that Congress has voted on, or sharing updates as he runs against Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop in the attorney general’s race, have received 38.5 million likes.
“To a whole lot of people, nothing I say will matter until I can address their lack of trust, so I better address that first,” Jackson said at the time.
“And the way I believe in doing that is by reaching people directly. Not many people want to hear from a political party, they want to hear from a person. So, my thinking is to be a person who speaks directly to them with respect. And over time, you’ll earn that respect back.”
Now, after months of campaigning across the state, Jackson said what he hears from voters on the trail, more than anything else, is an appreciation for his “approach in general” to one of the most competitive and closely fought races on the ballot this year.
“They feel I take a calm, sensible, non-partisan approach to the issues, they bring up my opponent very often, there’s a clear perception that he is much more partisan than I am,” Jackson said in an interview last week. “There’s a generalized state of anxiety across the state, and I’m sure across the country right now, and just a deep hunger for a politics that doesn’t make everyone so nervous and angry all the time.”
It’s a contrast Democrats are hoping voters will agree with and keep in mind when they vote, not just in the attorney general’s race, but notably in the presidential race, the governor’s race, and the superintendent of public instruction’s race.
Crime, public safety, and ICE cooperation bill
Jackson’s opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, has sought to convince voters that he is the candidate in this year’s race who will take politics out of the office, defend state laws, and restore a “common sense” approach to helping law enforcement tackle crime and public safety.
Responding to Bishop’s argument that he is more committed to tackling crime and improving public safety, Jackson said, “I’m the only one in this race who has ever put a violent criminal behind bars, I’m the only one who has worked with law enforcement, I’m the only one who has worked with victims.”
Of his opponent, Jackson said, “he is simply reading some talking points that a consultant wrote for him.”
Bishop and other Republicans have also drawn attention to violent crimes that have been committed by migrants who are in the country illegally.
Since 2019, GOP state lawmakers have tried three times to pass legislation requiring all 100 sheriffs in the state to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and honor detainer requests issued by the agency, to temporarily hold individuals that have been arrested, and whom ICE believes entered the country illegally.
The bill, which was vetoed as a standalone measure by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper twice, was taken up again this year, and after months of budget negotiations between GOP leaders, was combined with hundreds of millions of dollars in private school voucher funding, and passed a third time, as part of a mini-budget.
That budget bill was also vetoed by Cooper. GOP lawmakers plan to override his veto, but have not yet done so.
While the bill has faced near-unanimous opposition from Democrats every time it has come up, and concerns from activists and sheriffs of Democratic counties who have vowed to limit or end cooperation with ICE, Jackson told The N&O he believes this is an issue “where there is more compromise available than the partisan actors want people to see.”
Asked by The N&O in March if he supported the ICE cooperation bill as it existed at the time, months before it was attached to voucher funding, Jackson’s campaign said he “supports law enforcement’s authority to detain and prosecute criminals no matter their immigration status” but added it was important to “ensure that sheriffs are supported in making the decisions that are best for their communities.”
Democrat’s plan to address the fentanyl epidemic
Speaking with The N&O last week, Jackson said he’s “trying to treat the issue of crime in a serious and substantive way, by providing detailed responses to specific criminal problems” like the fentanyl epidemic and scammers using artificial intelligence to target and swindle vulnerable people.
When it comes to fentanyl, Jackson has touted a new anti-money laundering law that was unanimously approved by the General Assembly, and signed into law by Cooper in June.
Jackson said he would make “aggressive use” of the law, which goes into effect in December, to work more effectively with local, state, and federal law enforcement to investigate and prosecute criminals that are trafficking in fentanyl, and break apart their distribution cells.
On the demand side of the issue, Jackson said he would help expand access to medicated assisted treatment — “the gold standard for fentanyl addiction” — to help treat more people struggling with opioid use disorder.
“There are a number of counties in North Carolina that have begun using this, and I think there is now very solid data from those counties that that approach is saving lives,” Jackson said. “And what I want to do is take that data and use it to help me push out medicated assisted treatment to counties that aren’t using it, to show that we now have a proven model for how to save lives.”
Jackson said he also wants to use the far reach of his social media accounts, particularly on TikTok, to continue communicating directly with North Carolinians as attorney general.
As an example, he said it would be “really important for me to speak directly with young people about how there’s no such thing as safe experimentation with drugs anymore, because fentanyl is now laced into everything.”
“Having a major social media reach with young people is going to help me save lives,” Jackson said.
Jackson on TikTok lawsuit brought by Stein
When Jackson launched his campaign for attorney general a year ago, he had only been serving in the U.S. House for 10 months.
In that short span of time, he emerged as one of the most visible new members of Congress, amassing a significant following on nearly every social media platform out there. His outreach to constituents through TikTok, and the strong response it was receiving, earned him national attention as a freshman lawmaker.
The attention has come with criticism, including from other lawmakers including Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who called it “beyond reckless” last year that members of Congress were using the app while questions swirled about its ownership by Chinese company ByteDance and the security risks it could pose to American users and their data.
Jackson shared the widespread concerns about security risks, using a second phone only for accessing and posting videos on TikTok, to ensure that his personal information remained safe and out of reach.
To the disappointment of many users of the app, Jackson voted in favor of a bipartisan bill in March that would require ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company within 6 months, or face a nationwide ban.
Bishop, who spoke against the usage of the app, voted against that bill, saying he wanted to protect the First Amendment rights of the app’s 170 million American users.
More recently, the app has found itself the subject of a multistate lawsuit brought by a group of 13 bipartisan attorneys general. The suit, which was filed in Wake County Superior Court earlier this month, was led by Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic incumbent who Jackson is seeking to succeed.
In a 56-page complaint, Stein and the other attorneys general alleged that TikTok and its parent company had designed an addictive app that poses serious “mental, emotional, and physical risks” to young users, and ignored warnings about those harms “because their business model and desire for advertising revenue require keeping consumers on the app as much as possible.”
Stein, who is running for governor, said at the time that TikTok “knowingly created a product that harmed children, and then it deceived everyone about how dangerous and addictive the product was.”
Asked about the suit, Jackson said he thought it was “entirely appropriate” for Stein to “apply very close scrutiny and legal action to make sure we’re using the tools we have to keep young people safe.”
“I like that social media can be used for transparency, but I also recognize that it has been designed as a dopamine hamster wheel that has gotten an entire generation of young people addicted,” Jackson said.
“We are running a massive experiment on young people by allowing this to continue,” he added, noting that the “hold that social media” has on his own 16-year-old son and his friends “is remarkable and scary.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 1:45 PM.
