912: Carolina Lessons to Move Forward

NYT profiles Jeff Jackson

Big story out today making the case for Democrats leaning into normie explanations - hold the anger:

The camera work is nothing eye-catching, and neither is the bland zip-up hoodie that Jeff Jackson wears for this TikTok video. His subject matter this time, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023, is technical and complicated. But then Mr. Jackson starts talking, and it sounds so simple.

Staring straight at the camera, he lays out what happened in a calm tone — like Steve Burns from the beloved children’s show “Blue’s Clues,” only it’s for adults stressed about congressional clashes.

It was that clip, which attracted more than 30 million views, and dozens of similarly viral videos that helped Mr. Jackson, then a House Democrat, become North Carolina’s attorney general. He was elected to the post last fall even as President Trump took the swing state for the third time.

With his plain-spoken video explainers on the workings of government largely created during his days in Congress, Mr. Jackson has gained more than two million TikTok followers and almost a million more on Instagram, the most of any state attorney general. Now, Democrats may look to his example as a possible antidote for their problems in reaching voters, especially with midterm elections ahead. Are there lessons in Mr. Jackson’s just-the-facts presentations, which often seem to steer clear of partisan bluster?

In a recent interview at his office in downtown Raleigh, Mr. Jackson, 42, said he had no broad post-mortem for Democrats’ losses in 2024. He said he could guess only that “being practical and direct” in his TikTok videos about Ticketmaster prices, government shutdowns and bill negotiations made him feel trustworthy to his followers, who come from across the country.

He says the videos serve as a counterpoint to the outrage that he sees dominating political discourse these days, fueling anger and division and turning off voters.

“People have been fed that cotton candy for so long that they were finally ready for some broccoli, and I was there to be broccoli,” Mr. Jackson said. “If you’re talking about winning competitive elections in swing states, you better be seen as a credible messenger, and I don’t know how you can be seen that way if every time people hear from you, you’re trying to make them angry.”

The in-state advocates at Carolina Forward had a compelling take:

This is what Jackson's critics have never grasped. The loudest voices on the internet often just want to make people angry, but there's a huge swathe of people out there - on the left, right and center - who just want to be spoken to like adults. If you engage with them that way, many of them will listen.

You can read the full piece here.

Also, we included Carolina Forward last year in our Democracy journal piece as one of the state-level groups who applied lessons from the extremes to strengthening the center. You can read that here (and check out Carolina Forward here).

Pragmatic candidates going viral is good. Getting boosted by in-state partners even better. Need more of that over the 912 days before the next presidential primary winnows the field that will determine the next party leader.

PS we talked to Jackson back in 2023 on several of these topics in Mr Jackson’s Neighborhood.