DEMOCRAT

Jackson is a former assistant district attorney for Gaston County and was a state senator representing parts of Mecklenburg County from 2014 to 2022. He is a veteran and member of the Army National Guard; he enlisted after 9/11 and served in Afghanistan. He was elected to U.S. House District 14 in 2022 after an unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Senate seat (where Cheri Beasley was ultimately the Democratic nominee). He lists a number of accomplishments on his website, including fighting against gerrymandering, standing against discriminatory legislation like HB2, supporting investments in early childhood education, calling for raising teacher pay and expanding Medicaid, and passing reforms for the criminal justice system. As attorney general, he wants to go after companies that “use illegal medical debt practices or health care systems that wrongfully lower their standards of care.” He is the father of three and known for his popular social media following, which has several explainer videos about Congressional proceedings, though TikTok users criticized him for voting to ban TikTok over national security concerns. Jackson completed his bachelor’s and master’s at Emory and received his JD from UNC Chapel Hill.  (Age 41)

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REPUBLICAN

Bishop calls himself “one of the toughest and most outspoken conservatives in Congress.” He was an N.C. Senator, N.C. House member and a Mecklenburg County commissioner for years. He won a special election against Dan McCready in 2019 to serve as a U.S. Congressman after the N.C. State Board of Elections threw out the prior election results due to fraud. On his website, he says he believes that Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein “spread liberal propaganda” and says he has “fought the Biden administration’s dangerous policies.” He was a commercial litigator in his past. Bishop is also known for being the “architect of HB2,” the so-called “bathroom bill” in 2016 that required people to use public restrooms corresponding to their gender at birth and other provisions criticized by LGBTQ advocates. (It was partially repealed in a bipartisan compromise in 2017.) Bishop has been criticized by the Charlotte Observer for rhetoric that is “unbecoming of a member of Congress” including name-calling. He has a bachelor’s and JD from UNC Chapel Hill; his son is also currently completing his JD there now. (Age 60)

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