Jeff Jackson (politician)

Jackson was born in Miami, Florida, on September 12, 1982, and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.^[5][6][7] His father, Nathan Jackson, is a doctor, and his mother is a nurse.^[8][9] Jackson earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in philosophy from Emory University. He also earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law.^[10]

Jackson enlisted in the United States Army Reserve in 2002 while he was a junior at Emory. Mobilized to active duty as a corporal (E-4), he forward deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, assigned to a psychological operations unit.^[8] He worked as a business litigator at Womble Bond Dickinson in Charlotte.^[11] Commissioned as an officer after he graduated from college and entered law school, Jackson continues to serve in the North Carolina Army National Guard as a major in the Judge Advocate General's Corps.^[12][13][14]

Before joining the North Carolina Senate, Jackson worked as a prosecutor in Gaston County, North Carolina. He resigned upon joining the Senate, as the state constitution prohibits serving as an elected official and a prosecutor simultaneously.^[15]

When Senator Dan Clodfelter resigned in 2014 to become mayor of Charlotte, local Democratic precinct members selected Jackson from a field of four candidates to fill his State Senate seat; Jackson secured a majority with 25 of the 49 votes cast.^[16] Jackson then replaced Clodfelter as the Democratic nominee in the November 2014 general election. With no other candidates having filed to challenge Clodfelter, Jackson ran unopposed for a full two-year term. In 2016, he won a second full term, defeating Bob Diamond with 68% of the vote.^[17]

Jackson supports expanding pre-K education programs.^[18] In 2017, Jackson introduced a bill to repeal the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, also known as HB2.^[19]

Jackson spent several years pushing to change a North Carolina law that prevented women from legally withdrawing consent once sexual intercourse had begun. He described North Carolina was "the only state in the country where no doesn't really mean no".^[20] Legislation closing the consent loophole passed unanimously in 2019.^[21][22]

Jackson faced his first competitive race in 2020.^[23] His district had been significantly redrawn and was now a D+2 district, in which a Democratic candidate would be expected to win by two points.^[23] Jackson was called up for National Guard duty during the final weeks of his campaign, so his wife, Marisa, became the face of the campaign for the closing weeks.^[24] Jackson won the election with 55% of the vote.^[25]

Various news outlets mentioned Jackson as a potential candidate against Republican incumbent Richard Burr in North Carolina's 2016 U.S. Senate election. Jackson declined to run and Burr was reelected.^[26][27] He was also mentioned as a potential challenger to North Carolina's other U.S. senator, Thom Tillis, in 2020.

On January 26, 2021, Jackson announced he would run to replace Burr, who was retiring, in North Carolina's 2022 United States Senate election.^[28] He announced that he would run a "100-county campaign", visiting all of North Carolina's 100 counties.^[29] His campaign raised over $500,000 within 48 hours of his announcement.^[30] Jackson raised more than $900,000 in the third quarter of 2021, and in total more than $3 million from the time he announced his candidacy in January 2021.^[31] On December 16, 2021, Jackson announced that he would suspend his campaign and endorsed Cheri Beasley.^[32]

Jackson is married to Marisa Jackson and lives in Charlotte. He has two sons and a daughter, including his stepson from Marisa's previous relationship.^[50] In 2020, Jackson was named one of Charlotte Magazine's Charlotteans of the Year.^[51]

Jackson is a Presbyterian.