Two years ago on a snow day, North Carolina State Senator Jeff Jackson was the only member of the general assembly to show up for work. He took to Twitter with the #JustOneLegislator hashtag, posted longer-form versions of his tweets on Facebook, and received national attention in the process. It’s not often that North Carolina politicians receive positive attention from the rest of the country, but those were innocent, pre-HB2 times.
In his tweets and posts, Sen. Jackson imagined himself as a legislature of one, expanding Medicare, giving teachers raises, bringing back the film industry, returning control of the airport to Charlotte, and more. He showed the other elected officials how to combine social media and humor, and attracted more than just likes and retweets. “Am now receiving lots of calls from actual lobbyists. Even the false appearance of power gets their attention,” he tweeted. Later: “I just defeated a filibuster because I needed a drink of water. That removes any opposition to new child care subsidies.” By lunchtime, there was a BuzzFeed article about Senator Jackson’s #JustOneLegislator tweets.
Sen. Jackson, a young, photogenic Afghanistan veteran and former Gaston County assistant district attorney, was still new to the general assembly when he had that first brush with national prominence. He had become a state legislator for District 37 in 2014 when Mecklenburg County Democrats selected him to replace Dan Clodfelter, who had given up his seat to become Mayor of Charlotte in the wake of former Mayor Patrick Cannon’s arrest. Just 31 years old at the time, Jackson went on to run unopposed in the November 2014 election, campaigning enthusiastically even though he could have won simply by virtue of being the only candidate. Sen. Jackson just won a second term in the 2016 election, making him one of the few political bright spots for local citizens who follow a left-of-center path. He, along with every other state legislator, may have to run for office all over again this year because a federal court has ordered new districts to be drawn statewide, followed by a special election this November. As of press time, we were all waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court would allow the process to continue.
Every time I talk about Sen. Jackson with my friends who are in his district, they all agree that he’s on his way to bigger things. I’ve heard from friends outside District 37 who wish that he could be their senator too. Sen. Jackson just earned national attention again in December, during the one-day special session that followed Charlotte City Council’s surprising decision to repeal its non-discrimination ordinance. As the nation watched this special session online, they saw Sen. Jackson make an impassioned case for repealing House Bill 2. All that day, Sen. Jackson was active on Twitter, showing that the memes and hashtags that are normally used to make us laugh can also be effective at sending messages and spreading information. I always get the sense that Sen. Jackson will never stop fighting for his beliefs with his command of words, his ability to gain attention, and his speeches on the floor of the General Assembly chamber. It’s also possible that this is just the beginning, and that a broader political career awaits this state legislator who is only 34 years old.
So many North Carolinians are fed up with politics in the midst of the most contentious battle many of us have ever seen in this state, let alone nationwide, but Sen. Jackson isn’t resting. He continues to engage his constituents with the Gameplan 2017 that he announced in January, which is a four-part strategy for breaking the Republican supermajority in the state legislature. You can often find him on the ground with other Charlotteans at marches and other peaceful demonstrations. Maybe the best thing about Sen. Jackson is that he’s a government official who invites all of us to get involved.
TANGENTS: Senator, if you had to explain your Gameplan 2017 for the attention span-impaired, what would you like to say?
SEN. JACKSON: Gameplan is a way to make the biggest political impact for our state in the shortest amount of time. The basic idea is to flip enough seats to allow Gov. Cooper’s veto to be sustained by the minority party. It’s very doable and would completely change the political landscape in North Carolina.
TANGENTS: Have your priorities (as a legislator or as a citizen) changed after the 2016 election?
SEN. JACKSON: What’s changed is my realization that people need a clear and simple answer to the question, “What can I do to change things right now?” After the 2016 election, I started getting that question several times a day. Gameplan is my attempt to answer it.
TANGENTS: By the time this is published the 2017 statewide special election situation may have changed again, but can you explain for us what’s going on with that?
SEN. JACKSON: A federal court found lots of our districts to be unconstitutionally drawn and ordered a redraw. They also ordered new elections in 2017. Now the Supreme Court has put a hold on the case and we’re all waiting to find out what’s going to happen. Could go either way.
TANGENTS: Do you anticipate your district changing after the boundaries are redrawn?
SEN. JACKSON: Absolutely. Almost every district near a big city will be redrawn. For all I know, I will be drawn out of my district completely and be forced to move back into it if I want to run again. This is the kind of outlandish situation that happens when we let politicians draw districts, which we definitely should not.
TANGENTS: What’s the single most important thing that an everyday citizen can do to make a difference in politics?
SEN. JACKSON: Take an extra 30 seconds every few days and read an article about what’s going on in the General Assembly. We pass the vast majority of the laws that affect people’s lives and almost all of them fly under the radar. If most people knew just a little more about what we were up to, it would force a big upgrade in the quality of their representation.
TANGENTS: Some people with great ideas don’t get involved in politics because they think you need to have lots of money or connections. What would you say to a political novice who would love to run for office but doesn’t know how to begin?
SEN. JACKSON: If you’re not running for office because you’re intimidated by the prospect of joining whatever political body you aspire to, go visit that body. If you’d like to serve in the General Assembly, come to Raleigh and walk around the building. Wander into the offices of some legislators and just start talking to them. Come to some committee meetings. Do that a few times and you’ll start to see yourself there. The fear of the unknown will fade away and will be replaced with the confidence that you have just as much a right to serve as anyone who is already serving. In fact, you’re probably exactly who we need.
TANGENTS: I have a friend in her late 30s who had made a conscious choice never to vote until last year. Now she’s decided it’s not worth voting ever again. How can we keep disaffected voters from tuning out?
SEN. JACKSON: Tell her that is music to the ears of everyone in office who is trying to pick her pocket. Whenever bad politicians hear that someone has become too discouraged to vote, their smile gets a little wider and the burden on good people everywhere gets a little heavier.
TANGENTS: Twitter has been used as a tool for protest and organizing for years, but most politicians treat it as a way to make announcements rather than communicating. What are your thoughts on social media as a means of communicating with our elected officials?
SEN. JACKSON: Right now, people consider elected officials on social media to be a bit of a novelty. If one of your elected officials is on social media, chances are you aren’t expecting a real interaction. That’s going to change over the next few years. People are going to expect some level of authenticity from elected officials on social media, and they should. If that’s how my constituents want to interact, it’s my job to accommodate them.
TANGENTS: After HB2, the divide between Charlotte and the rest of the state feels even more pronounced than ever. It sometimes feels like we’re in a different state, and this magazine has had fun imagining what would happen if Mecklenburg were to secede. How do you think North Carolina and Mecklenburg could reconcile our differences?
SEN. JACKSON: We still haven’t had all the relevant parties in the same room to discuss HB2. That seems like an obvious place to start. A real effort to reconcile probably can’t happen when the only time we talk to each other about this issue is through the press.
TANGENTS: Assuming you have any leisure time these days, what do you like to do for fun?
SEN. JACKSON: We have an eight-year-old and a one-year-old, so the hour or two I have each day that aren’t scheduled go to them. Our little one likes toy trains and our older one likes football, so my nights usually involve a bit of both. Most of my hobbies are still in the aspirational phase. Someday, you’ll see me on a mountain bike, fly fishing, wing suiting, etc.
TANGENTS: On your #JustOneLegislator snow day, were there any Home Alone type moments you’d be willing to admit to?
SEN. JACKSON: I spent the day eating old donuts and fielding calls from actual lobbyists who were hearing rumors of something strange happening in the General Assembly and wanted to know if they should be concerned. So I told them, “Yeah, I’m hearing that, too, not sure what’s going on but you better get down here…”
TANGENTS: It’s safe to say that you have an unusually high number of Twitter followers for a state legislator. Who are some of your favorite people to follow on Twitter?
SEN. JACKSON: @ericfraz, @katie_levans, @greglacour, @andygoh, @panthers, @thebechtler, @narratedpotus
Follow Senator Jeff Jackson on Twitter and Facebook @JeffJacksonNC, and on the web at JeffJacksonNC.com.
This article originally appeared in Tangents Magazine.
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