Biography:
Congressman Jeff Jackson is a dad, husband and soldier. He is in his 20th year of military service, having enlisted after the attacks of September 11th, trained at Ft. Bragg, and served in Afghanistan. He continues to serve today as a Major in the Army National Guard.
After deploying to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Congressman Jackson attended law school at UNC-Chapel Hill with help from the G.I. bill, before serving as an assistant district attorney in Gaston County. In Gaston County, he tried more than one hundred cases. In the process, he saw firsthand how a failure to properly invest in and prioritize public education, economic development, mental health care, and criminal justice reform was harming people and families across North Carolina.
Congressman Jackson spent eight years as a North Carolina State Senator, representing Mecklenburg County. He dedicated much of his time in the General Assembly to reforming the criminal justice system, including working to close the consent loophole, decrease unnecessary charges and arrests, and improve our expungement laws. As a state Senator, Rep. Jackson was outspoken about the need to reform our redistricting process so that voters can choose who represents them, not the other way around. The first bill he ever filed in Raleigh was to end gerrymandering by establishing an independent redistricting commission. Now, Congressman Jackson is the first person to represent North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District, which includes parts of Mecklenburg and Gaston counties.