The Mark Robinson effect

How his collapse upended our race

I’m in the passenger side of a car heading to my next campaign stop. We’re in the homestretch. Lots of travel, not much family time, reporters calling, scheduled to the minute, handshakes, speeches, caffeine.

But I got a good one for you.

So I was in Goldsboro, a town in eastern North Carolina, doing a campaign event.

I greeted everyone as they arrived and was about to give some remarks about my campaign for Attorney General.

Suddenly, someone came up to me and said, “Hey Jeff, there’s a reporter from the New York Times here. She’s standing outside. She said she’s in town for something else, but she heard about your event and she wants to come inside and observe.”

I thought for a moment. This… had never happened before.

So I walked outside, introduced myself, and invited her in. She seemed a little surprised that I was okay with it, but she didn’t really say much.

And then I just gave my speech. Took some questions. People were very kind. We wrapped up, I shook everyone’s hand again, and said goodbye.

Then life went on and the whole thing slipped my mind - until a few days ago, when I got a text from a friend: “whoaaa check it out you’re in nytimes.” 

My heart stopped. Holy smokes. Forgot about that. 

I raced to read the article, and here it is:

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In part, she wrote:

Jackson talked a fair amount about plans to tackle scams and other more practical issues as attorney general, but also generally about character and a “backlash of basic decency.” Either character counts in this election, he said, or it doesn’t count at all. That’s obviously pointed, but this was the week the latest round of Mark Robinson news broke; Jackson also led his remarks by talking about how he had “really, really enjoyed working with people on both sides of the aisle. There was a lot to be gained in dropping my assumptions about who people are based on what I saw on the news.”

His parting thought along those lines was that voters needed to prepare themselves to take seriously an opportunity to unite people and to check their impulses for outrage:

“We want you in the right head space. When we get through this, to seize this moment we have to broaden the appeal, to show people who were on the fence but chose to support us that they were right to trust us with their vote. … I want us all to be on the right page with that, because I know how much outrage drives the current energy in politics, but we’re going to have an opportunity to emotionally reset. Which means we have to start doing that now. And for people whose anxiety levels are super high? If you get home tomorrow and some poll comes out and it spikes your anxiety, and you just can’t handle it, I want you to give your anxiety to me. I will carry it for you, because I don’t have anxiety, I have confidence. This isn’t going to be the most important election of our lifetimes; it’s going to be the best election of our lifetimes. Once we get through it, y’all, it’s going to feel wonderful.”

I am not sure if I’ve ever heard someone say, “This is going to be the best election of our lives.” It’s hard to know what kinds of messages work to make people vote or to change minds. While I do think there’s some evidence from the Trump/anti-Trump era that a scorched-earth strategy can form winning coalitions, this was an interesting glimpse at a different approach.

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I really appreciate that she quoted that part of my speech. 

It’s usually the last thing I say because I want it to stick with folks. The basic idea is that, on the other side of this election, I think we’re going to have an opportunity to try and bring the country back together - and that’s an intentional decision we have to make. Inertia doesn’t take you there - it takes you to more outrage. So we have to be conscious about stepping back from that, and ideally that should start now, before the election is even here. Just a thought.

Campaign update - The Mark Robinson effect

That said, I’ve got two developments for you.

The first is that our last poll had us +1. So basically it’s a tied race.

And the second is Mark Robinson.

We’ve all seen the collapse of his campaign. Pretty wild stuff.

But the side effect of Robinson’s collapse is that my opponent is now the leading GOP candidate in the state. That comes with a higher level of support from donors - and a new super PAC that just came in against us.

Bottom-line: We’ll be facing a lot more attack ads.

You may have already seen them. If you haven’t, here’s a screenshot to give you a sense:

That’s from my opponent’s first ad, and it fits with his overall approach: lots of buzzwords and a plastic version of me that he can dress up to suit his needs.

It’s a little silly, but if left unanswered, potentially effective.

And he’s blanketing airwaves across the state. These attacks are everywhere. 

To be blunt, we have to match his surge on TV, or we will lose. 

So my request is for help to do that. All other campaign expenses have been handled. At this point, everything we raise goes straight to television advertising, which is exactly what we need right now.

You can give directly to our TV budget here (ActBlue) or here (non-ActBlue).

Three and a half weeks left. We’re almost through. I’m asking for your help, and I hope you can do it.

Best,

Jeff Jackson

P.S. - And if you want to see our new ad, you can watch it here.