The camera work is nothing eye-catching, and neither is the bland zip-up hoodie that Jeff Jackson wears for this TikTok video. His subject matter this time, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023, is technical and complicated. But then Mr. Jackson starts talking, and it sounds so simple.
Staring straight at the camera, he lays out what happened in a calm tone — like Steve Burns from the beloved children’s show “Blue’s Clues,” only it’s for adults stressed about congressional clashes.
It was that clip, which attracted more than 30 million views, and dozens of similarly viral videos that helped Mr. Jackson, then a House Democrat, become North Carolina’s attorney general. He was elected to the post last fall even as President Trump took the swing state for the third time.
With his plain-spoken video explainers on the workings of government largely created during his days in Congress, Mr. Jackson has gained more than two million TikTok followers and almost a million more on Instagram, the most of any state attorney general. Now, Democrats may look to his example as a possible antidote for their problems in reaching voters, especially with midterm elections ahead. Are there lessons in Mr. Jackson’s just-the-facts presentations, which often seem to steer clear of partisan bluster?
His critics in North Carolina say he is more focused on style than substance. They also question whether Mr. Jackson can now hold the attention of a national audience in the way he did as one of many members of Congress.
In a recent interview at his office in downtown Raleigh, Mr. Jackson, 42, said he had no broad post-mortem for Democrats’ losses in 2024. He said he could guess only that “being practical and direct” in his TikTok videos about Ticketmaster prices, government shutdowns and bill negotiations made him feel trustworthy to his followers, who come from across the country.
He says the videos serve as a counterpoint to the outrage that he sees dominating political discourse these days, fueling anger and division and turning off voters.
“People have been fed that cotton candy for so long that they were finally ready for some broccoli, and I was there to be broccoli,” Mr. Jackson said. “If you’re talking about winning competitive elections in swing states, you better be seen as a credible messenger, and I don’t know how you can be seen that way if every time people hear from you, you’re trying to make them angry.”
In 2023, just as Mr. Jackson’s profile was taking off, Republicans in North Carolina’s legislature approved a new congressional map, which placed Mr. Jackson in a newly drawn district that appeared unwinnable for a Democrat. Mr. Jackson, a former prosecutor, state legislator and Army veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan, posted on TikTok about the new maps. He described the actions as “political corruption” before announcing, “I’ve got news for them: I’m running for attorney general.”
In the end, Mr. Jackson won the tightly contested statewide race by nearly 3 percentage points against Dan Bishop, a former Republican congressman closely aligned with Mr. Trump.
Since taking office this year, Mr. Jackson has kept a relatively low profile, especially when it comes to challenging the Trump administration, something that other Democratic attorneys general have been eager to do.
Mr. Jackson has sued the administration 10 times, less than any of the other 22 Democratic state attorneys general. (In total, Democratic attorneys general have filed more than 40 lawsuits, and many of them have joined more than a dozen cases.) Mr. Jackson recently sued the administration over the withholding of federal funding that might have affected about 1,000 school jobs in North Carolina. Last month, the Education Department released those funds.
“It’s the same approach with respect to the administration as any other potential target of litigation,” Mr. Jackson said. “Did they break the law? Did it affect North Carolina? Can I prove both of those things?”
These days, much of his office’s work focuses on other problems: residents facing robocalls and landlords accused of illegally raising rent prices. He posts less frequently on TikTok. And he has frustrated some allies by opting not to speak publicly on big political issues.
When a Republican challenger for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat tried to overturn his loss by throwing out thousands of ballots, Mr. Jackson remained quiet about the case until it was resolved in federal court in favor of the Democratic incumbent. Mr. Jackson’s office was leading the litigation and representing the state elections board in its efforts to certify the result.
“As the new A.G. coming in and inheriting this extremely high-profile election matter, I sort of wanted to set the tone of, ‘This is the nonpartisan way we’re going to deal with things,’” he said. “This is fundamentally a nonpartisan job.”
His more muted approach has surprised some lawmakers and consultants in Raleigh, including Democrats who at times have privately complained about his efforts to seek the spotlight.
Mr. Jackson has not always seemed to steer away from partisan fights. He first gained attention as a state senator in 2014 with a six-minute speech criticizing Republicans for not giving Democrats a chance to thoroughly read the state budget before scheduling a vote.
“I always found him to be thoughtful, and not some kind of showboat,” said Julie Mayfield, a Democratic state senator who worked with Mr. Jackson when he was in the legislature.
Republicans described Mr. Jackson as a clout-chaser whose talk about nonpartisanship belied reality. Jason Simmons, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, said Mr. Jackson was a “career politician whose ambitions are greater than his accomplishments.”
In the state capital, Mr. Jackson has faced challenges from Republicans who control the legislature. Last year, they passed a sweeping bill that made it harder for the attorney general to challenge laws they had passed. And this spring, they introduced a bill that aimed to block Mr. Jackson from suing President Trump over executive orders. The bill has not advanced, and Timothy Moffitt, a state senator and the measure’s lead sponsor, did not respond to requests for comment.
Conservatives in the state acknowledge that Mr. Jackson has become a tough competitor. Bill Hollingsed, the executive director for the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police, said that many chiefs, including some who lean conservative, were pleasantly surprised when Mr. Jackson attended the entire three days of their annual conference in Cherokee, N.C., in January, and met with members one on one.
“He actually documented all their concerns and read them back to us,” Mr. Hollingsed said. “That went a long way in earning their trust.”
Mr. Jackson said he was at first hesitant to deploy his TikTok account in his new job, worried that it could affect ongoing cases.
But that strategy has recently begun to shift. In May, he released a video directly addressed to WeChat, a Chinese-owned messaging and payment platform that prosecutors say has been used to launder money and traffic fentanyl in the United States. Mr. Jackson said WeChat has not taken steps to combat its use as a “digital hub for fentanyl trafficking.” WeChat did not respond to requests for comment.
His videos as attorney general have continued to receive hundreds of thousands of views.
It is that social media presence that seemed to draw people to a party last year in Statesville, N.C., that Mr. Jackson was headlining. It was called the “Losers’ Ball,” because many of the invited Democratic candidates were threatened under the state’s newly drawn maps.
As Mr. Jackson finished his speech, a planned balloon drop malfunctioned. Some took it as a bad omen for the Democratic Party.
But Kate Barr, the party’s host and a State Senate candidate who wound up losing her race, said Mr. Jackson’s popularity was noticeable as a line of fans formed to meet him that night.
“He’s a calm, levelheaded, thoughtful presence online,” Ms. Barr said.
So has Mr. Jackson found a different political approach — broccoli, as he says — in this divisive, combative moment?
“Maybe broccoli with cheese sauce,” she said.