Durham DA’s Run for AG

It’s Wednesday, February 14.

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Good morning, readers. 

The Assembly writer Michael Hewlett and I spent the past few months working on a profile of Satana Deberry, who has served as Durham’s DA since 2018 and is now jockeying for the Democratic nomination in the race for North Carolina attorney general. 

I interviewed Deberry twice for the profile. We met first at the downtown crepery Press, where Deberry arrived exactly on time, ordered an Americano, and walked me through the basics of her background and her platform. A few weeks later, we sat down in her office on the top floor of the Durham County Courthouse and went deeper on some topics, discussing the criticisms she’s received as DA and the life experiences that have shaped her approach to prosecution. At one point, she opened up about being literally opened up, sharing a story about receiving a C-section without anesthesia.

Deberry is a gifted storyteller. She spoke about her C-section with such measured breath that I was reminded of something she told me at Press—that as a teen, she attended North Carolina Governor’s School with a focus in bass clarinet—and seamlessly connected the experience to things that are relevant to her run for AG: the importance of reproductive rights, healthcare access, and representation (if elected, Deberry would be the first NC AG who isn’t white and male).

But are her stories reaching voters?

Deberry is trailing her primary opponent, congressman Jeff Jackson, in campaign donations (she’s raised about $40,000; he’s raised over $2 million), so she has less bandwidth for ads and traveling. And Jackson already has a name recognition advantage, thanks in part to his massive social media following. As Hewlett and I wrote: “In a country where maternal and infant mortality rates are horrifically high for Black women, Deberry wants you to know that she knows the stakes… but Jackson wants you to know that he, too, knows the stakes—he fought in Afghanistan, after all—and while Deberry’s anecdote is being quietly conferred to a reporter who will write about it two months later, Jackson’s is being spliced with boxing ring footage and disseminated instantaneously to 3.5 million TikTok followers who already want him to run for president.”

Early voting starts tomorrow. We’ll keep you posted.

Have a good Wednesday, everyone.

—Lena

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