Jeff Jackson Maintains Democratic Hold on Attorney General’s Office

U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson won the race for North Carolina attorney general, defeating Republican Rep. Dan Bishop to keep the office in Democratic hands.

With precincts reporting, Jackson had 51 percent of the vote to Bishop’s 48.6 percent as of Wednesday morning. Bishop called Jackson Tuesday night to concede, Spectrum news reported.

Though polls showed a tight race, Bishop lost by a wider margin — about 147,000 votes — than the last two Republican challengers, state Sen. Buck Newton in 2016 and Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill in 2020.

For more than 120 years, Democrats have had a chokehold on the state attorney general’s office, sometimes using it as a launching pad for higher office. But Bishop, the hard-line conservative who shot to the national spotlight eight years ago when he sponsored the state “bathroom bill,” was hopeful about making history by breaking the cycle.

He had an uphill battle in his opponent, Jackson, who has amassed 2.2 million followers on TikTok. He has gotten even more followers through his direct-to-camera conversations with voters. 

State attorneys general have garnered more prominence nationally in recent years as ideologically aligned groups of officeholders have banded together to challenge corporations or federal rules. Republican attorneys general have been especially active, suing the Biden administration 14 times in the last four years over policies about protections for LGBTQ people, environmental rules, and vaccine mandates. 

Bishop said during the campaign that he was eager to join the fight. 

“I’d like to be a participant in that, and I’ll be a robust participant,” he told PBS North Carolina’s Kelly McCullen in August. 

He was even more explicit in an interview on Steve Bannon’s podcast, invoking Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has advocated for strict abortion laws and bans on gender-affirming care.

Bishop has focused on restoring law and order, talking about crime rates and illegal immigration. He has accused Jackson of being a leftist who is soft on crime. Bishop said he would work more closely with law enforcement and district attorneys to tackle the problem. 

Jackson has repeatedly brought up Bishop’s record in the state General Assembly, particularly his sponsorship of House Bill 2, which prohibited transgender people from using public facilities that aligned with their gender identity. The law sparked a national backlash, resulting in performers canceling concerts and sports conferences pulling tournaments out of the state. The law was later repealed. 

Jackson also has tied Bishop to Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, whose gubernatorial campaign has been dogged by a history of racist, sexist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ comments on social media. Bishop had defended Robinson following stories in The Assembly and CNN that led to high-profile staff departures. (Robinson has denied the allegations in the articles and has sued CNN.)

Things escalated between the two candidates in early October when Bishop sued Jackson’s campaign and others. The lawsuit claims that Jackson’s campaign and other defendants hired a marketing firm to spread “defamatory” information about Bishop’s legal career in a polling survey. Jackson has denied the allegations. Bishop also has tried to tie Jackson to Chad Turner, a Charlotte LGBTQ advocate and registered sex offender. Jackson has denied a friendship or that he knew anything about Turner’s criminal history.