We all know who might lose

And pictures from Afghanistan

Congress is out of session until after the election. We’re all back home, in campaign mode:

But before we left D.C., we had one final, fascinating floor session.

We all gathered to finish a handful of votes. We were on the floor together for about an hour.

I stood there and looked around. It was genuinely hard to imagine how much was going to happen between that moment and the next time we were all together - for the country, and ourselves.

Everyone felt it. And then something interesting happened.

We’ve all got a sense of who might lose their election. Honestly, there are so few competitive races that it’s very common knowledge among members of Congress who is in a real fight.

And sure enough, members started crowding around the handful of us who - like me - are in tossup races.

There was general well-wishing, projections of confidence (“Oh, I’m not worried about you, you’ll be fine”), offers of support (“Hey, you need me to come to your district and stump for you?”), and the kinds of specific questions that politicians know to ask each other, like, “Is your opponent self-funding?” (which means, are you running against a multi-millionaire), or “Are you inside the margin?” (which means, how close is the polling), or “You got a real jerk?” (which means, is your opponent a real jerk).

Honestly, it all felt very kind. Since I’m running for Attorney General, my election doesn’t directly impact them - it won’t determine which party is in the majority - but these are people I’ve gotten to know, and they’ve been following my race and checking in with me about it all year.

And not just members of my party. That was the most interesting part. Since my election won’t impact Congress, members of the other party have felt free to tell me what they really think about the matchup in my race, which is notable since my opponent is also a member of Congress and they know him well.

One member of the other party pointed at me and said, “Jeff, you need to be the next Attorney General for North Carolina.” 

I was a little surprised, but I said, “Hey, thanks. How’d you like to be the chairman of Republicans for Jeff?” 

He politely declined, which I certainly understood.

(Just speaking objectively, for some reason my opponent has drawn very little support from elected members of his own party. All year, it’s appeared that the folks who know him best are the ones supporting him the least. Take that as you will.)

As I headed off the floor, another member jogged over and we walked out together. He’s in a tight race, but it leans his way. 

He said, “You in the margin?” 

I said, “Yep. You got a jerk?” 

He said, “Yep.” 

Then we both agreed that at least we didn’t catch a self-funder, which has become one of the most aggravating of all potential opponents.

Then we shook hands and took off. I think he’ll win, but it’s gonna be close.

Campaign update - Deadline

Our last fundraising deadline for the entire campaign is this Saturday.

As I told you last week, it’s pretty clear that the collapse of Mark Robinson’s campaign has been a financial gift to my opponent. 

Bishop now has much less competition for big donors - and a new super PAC just came in against us. 

When the fundraising deadline hits on Saturday, we’re expecting Bishop to post a sizable haul that he’ll put directly into even more attack ads.

Yes, it’s ironic that Robinson’s implosion has given a last-minute boost to my opponent, but that’s the situation we’re in.

I’m getting a lot of text messages from friends along the lines of, “Dang Jeff, I’m watching baseball and he is beating you up every commercial break.” Another friend actually recited my opponent’s attack ad back to me as proof of how many times she had seen it on TV.

You won’t get too many more of these requests from me. We’re trying to close a budget gap that will let us be on TV in all six major media markets in North Carolina. 

In a race where the last poll only had us +1, that kind of coverage is absolutely essential. We can’t afford to give our opponent an undefended region anywhere in the state, or that could tip the whole thing.

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

Thanks again. 20 days to go.

My enlistment anniversary

Last month, I hit my 22nd year in the military. I’ve now been a soldier for most of my life, which is a little hard for me to believe.

I enlisted after September 11th, served with Army Special Operations in Afghanistan, and now serve as a Major in the National Guard.

I was going to write you a short essay about what that service has meant to me, but in the process of trying to select some photos to go along with it, I decided to just show you the photos because that seemed more fun. 

So here’s a selection of moments from my deployment to Afghanistan. For context, a big part of my job was interacting with locals, which meant we were required not to shave, as that’s what is expected from men in Afghanistan. Also, our uniform requirements were a little relaxed, hence the UNC hat you’ll see (see if you can spot the kid I let wear my hat and sunglasses).

(Disclaimer: Use of military rank, job title, and photographs in uniform do not imply endorsement by the DOD or the Army.)

Best,

Jeff Jackson

P.S. - I did a social media video responding to my opponent’s latest attack ad. It’s two minutes long, which means we can’t use it as a TV ad, but it got over a million views yesterday online. You can watch it here.