John,

Two weeks ago, I told you about voting on the big, annual defense bill in the Armed Services Committee.

And the big surprise was that it didn’t become a culture war mess. All the hot-button amendments were kept out because committee leadership wants the bill to be bipartisan and actually become law and not just land in the Senate dead-on-arrival - which is exactly what has happened every time a bill has been sent over to the Senate loaded up with culture war stuff.

But funding for veterans health care and military construction go into a different bill and it’s handled by a different committee.

And for some reason, last week the leadership for that committee allowed their bill to get filled with highly partisan culture war amendments.

So now - after it passed the full House on a largely party-line vote - it is dead-on-arrival in the Senate.

I’ve seen this happen a bunch with other bills, so I’ve got a pretty good sense of what happens then:

The Senate says no. The Speaker then holds a meeting and tells the majority party, “Hey look, we tried, but the Senate isn’t going to accept a bill to fund veterans health care that’s got all these partisan amendments, so we’re going to settle for a version without them.”

Then the Speaker will be mercilessly attacked by his right-flank, whose membership will be privately glad the Speaker is nixing their amendments because they gain more from yelling at him on TV than winning policy victories.

Incidentally, we could still suffer this same fate with the defense bill. Even though it cleared committee relatively outrage-free, now it’s headed to the floor for a vote of the whole House - and 1,357 amendments await!

Needless to say, there’s all kinds of outrage-bait in there. The big question will be whether the Speaker allows those amendments to come to a vote. If he does, they’ll pass, but it will doom this version of the bill in the Senate. Basically he has to decide whether he wants to stand up to his right-flank before-the-fact or after-the-fact. We’ll know tomorrow.

Breakfast with Artemis II

I know last week I talked about Europa, and normally I wouldn’t do two space conversations in a row, but a few days ago I unexpectedly had the opportunity to have breakfast with the crew for Artemis II.

The Artemis program is the new Apollo program. This is the NASA mission that will take us back to the moon for the first time since 1972.

Artemis I was the uncrewed orbiting of the moon, and that happened two years ago.

Artemis II will be the crewed orbiting of the moon, and that will happen next year.

Artemis III will be the lunar landing, currently scheduled for 2026.

Here’s the crew for Artemis II:

(On the right is Christina Koch, of North Carolina. Homestate pride!)

I’ve been fortunate to meet these astronauts a few times, and obviously their technical skills and overall proficiency are remarkable. I ask them a ton of questions on everything I can think of and they always have the precise answer I’m looking for.

But what I’m truly struck by is their emotional intelligence. Their interpersonal skills are just off the charts.

Which makes sense. NASA has been learning how to screen for psychological stability and group compatibility for a long time. They also have the benefit of being absurdly selective given the number of applicants each year.

The result is four people who are basically the most charming, empathetic, positive, and patient people you’ve ever met.

Which is going to come in handy when they have to live inside this thing for 10 days:

In short, next year you’ve got some big things to look forward to.

Not only are we going to do an amazing mission to orbit the moon in preparation for landing, but you’re going to get to see a lot of these four remarkable people who are the embodiment of so many of the values to which we aspire. Super cool stuff.

IHOP conversation

I’m a Major in the Army National Guard and I have drill once a month. As a tradition, I usually get breakfast at the IHOP near the armory while I’m there.

This time, a man stopped me in the parking lot. He asked if I was Jeff Jackson. I told him I was, and he said, “I read your emails. Are you running for Attorney General?”

I told him I was.

He said, “You should mention that more. I don’t think people know that.”

I was surprised to hear that and told him I would address that in the very next email, so here we go:

Hi.

I’m Jeff Jackson. I’m running for Attorney General.

I’ve been a prosecutor, a soldier, a state Senator, and a congressman.

The job of Attorney General is to be a shield for you against those who mean you harm.

Organized crime pushing fentanyl, A.I.-enabled scammers who target your bank account, businesses that scam you or mistreat their workers - defending you against those kinds of threats is what the job is all about.

I’m in a 50/50 race. The last AG election in our state came down to 0.2%, and I imagine this will be in the same ballpark.

My opponent is Dan Bishop, most well-known as the author of HB2, the “bathroom bill” from a few years back. He has never prosecuted a case and is currently a member of the right-flank in Congress. Last week he made national headlines for saying the way the former president has been treated in court is “as bad as it was in Alabama in 1950 if a person happened to be Black” and said “a reckoning is coming for gangster government.”

As you can see, he has a somewhat different approach to politics than I do.

But it will be a very close race, and your support is what powers this campaign.

If you can, I’d appreciate your support here (ActBlue) or here (non-ActBlue). Both fund our campaign directly, they’re just two different platforms in case folks have a preference for one or the other.

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

Thanks for your support, and see you on the campaign trail.

Best,

Jeff