AUSTIN JACKSON FOR DNC DELEGATE
Austin is running for Delegate to the Democratic National Convention, which will be on August 19-22 in Chicago, IL.
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He's running for Sixth Congressional District delegate on May 7. If not elected from his congressional district, he'll run again at the SCDP Convention on May 18 as an At-Large Delegate.
WHY RUN FOR NATIONAL DELEGATE?
it is no secret that the last time I ran for this office in 2020, I ran to support President Biden's primary opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders. This is the story of how Joe Biden won over a Sanders delegate with his administration's actions. This is the story about how President Biden got South Carolina through the pandemic despite the hands-off approach of our state leaders. This is the story of how the Biden-Harris administration got billions of dollars into South Carolina, new companies to invest that will create jobs, and worker protections and expansions in union bargaining rights that protect not only the employees that I serve as a shop steward but also the managers I report to.
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This is the story of how a stutterer from Scranton inspires a stutterer from St. Andrews to this day. And this is why I, who supported Bernie Sanders all the way to Milwaukee (virtually) last time, intend to support our President and Vice President all the way to Chicago--and back to the White House.
MY STORY
I am a Columbia native, and have lived in the Columbia area my entire life. I attended Richland One schools, graduated from Columbia High School just as the Great Recession came to a head, and went to the University of South Carolina, where I graduated with a BA in Political Science.
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At the same time, I took a job at the grocery store Nana and I shopped at to help pay for daily expenses in college. A job I intended to only keep in college (that I still have today) has kept me in tune with the harsh reality of being a South Carolina worker.
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Knowing what my mom and Nana sacrificed to raise my brother and me; knowing what my coworkers and I have to do just to maintain the basics--that's what's driven me to politics all these years. When the chance came to build a youth movement in my home state, I took it.
OBAMA-ERA COLLEGE ACTIVISM
I first got involved in politics on the first Obama campaign. I knocked on doors, tabled at a Benedict College game, volunteered at that huge rally with Oprah at Williams-Brice Stadium, and made phone calls. They led me to the College Democrats convention (which happened to be at USC), and later to USC itself.
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At Carolina, I was involved with the College Democrats at USC, one of the chapters that eventually formed CDSC in 2011. While there, I also volunteered for Steve Benjamin's 2010 mayoral campaign and the SCDP coordinated campaigns in 2010 and 2012.
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I was part of an ad hoc South Carolina delegation to the 2011 College Democrats of America convention that formed CDSC as we know it.
BUILDING YDSC
In 2012, I was asked to join the Young Democrats of South Carolina as our Communications Director by former President Mike Glymph. While there, I learned how to leverage what we then called "new media" and online fundraising to grow YDSC from five to 10 people in the old Lady Street office to a stable ten-region system under previous President Bre Maxwell.
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In 2016, I ran for Secretary to modernize the chapter chartering process and to get much of our records in a place leaders can easily reach them, serving under Bree Maxwell and Jeni Atchley. With Jeni, she and I wrote the bylaws that now allow counties to form Young Democrats chapters, digitized YDSC records, and assisted with chapter building behind the scenes: I had kept my promise.
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I just completed a term as President of YDSC less than three weeks ago. As President, YDSC fought dangerous bills in Columbia including in efforts to delay a six week abortion ban for months, delaying bans on gender affirming care and deleterious changes to state history standards for nearly two years. YDSC made over 30,000 contact attempts between October 2023 and February 2024 in support of local candidates and special election candidates that asked for our help, and in support of the First in the Nation Democratic Primary. YDSC started having recurring donors for the first time. And expectations of the group have risen in the time I've been in the org--from little more than friends drinking together in 2012 to a force to be reckoned with in 2024.
TAKING AN ACTIVE ROLE IN YDA
Starting in 2017, I have taken a more active role in YDA in the last seven years: first as Male, then Second Vice Chair of the Disability Caucus; then a term as Southeast Region Treasurer under former Region Director and local Commissioner Matt Hughes. In 2021, I was elected as Secretary-Treasurer of the YDA Labor Caucus for a term. I now serve both caucuses in appointed roles--co-Chief of Staff in the Disability Caucus and co-Southern Region Director in the Labor Caucus.
The former showed me that my disability can in fact be a strength; the latter put me on YDA's Finance Committee and gave me a crash course in where and how YDA raises its money. I'd also been part of YDA's Credentials and Rules committees. And being in the Labor Caucus proved to me that if they won't let working people sit at a table, you follow what Shirley Chisholm said: "then you bring in a folding chair"
THE PLAN
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As a member of the SCDP Affirmative Action Committee, elect as many delegates as possible that reflect the diversity of our state and state party
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As a former YDSC President, elect as many youth delegates as we possibly can. South Carolina traditionally elects about 1 in 4 delegates under the age of 36 though the goal is to elect 10 youth delegates
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To make a strong case to youth voters nationwide that Joe Biden can be persuaded to take our issues seriously whereas his opponent will go out of his way to hurt young Americans
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To bring the concerns and aspirations of Black voters into the Democratic National Convention. This is a work meeting, not merely a party.
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This includes raising the minimum wage to a living wage and keeping it there, getting this party on the record for a ceasefire in Gaza and to enforce federal law to that end, increasing economic opportunities for people including and especially for Black people, and protecting federal civil rights protections
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Expanding upon President Biden and Vice President Harris' efforts to protect collective bargaining by passing the PRO Act, a bill that would greatly expand worker power and would preempt South Carolina laws allowing people to freeload off unions where they exist
A RECORD OF LEADERSHIP
Past Roles
SECRETARY-TREASURER, YDA LABOR CAUCUS
August 2021-June 2023
PRESIDENT, YOUNG DEMOCRATS OF SOUTH CAROLINA
July 2022-April 2024
CHAIR, YDSC PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS
January 2021-June 2022
DEPUTY PARLIAMENTARIAN, YOUNG DEMOCRATS OF SOUTH CAROLINA
September 2020-June 2022
SECOND VICE CHAIR, YOUNG DEMOCRATS OF AMERICA DISABILITY ISSUES CAUCUS
July 2017-June 2023
TREASURER, YDA SOUTHEAST REGION
March 2019-August 2021
SECRETARY, YOUNG DEMOCRATS OF SOUTH CAROLINA
April 2016-July 2020
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ALTERNATE, RICHLAND COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY
March 2014-March 2016
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, YOUNG DEMOCRATS OF SOUTH CAROLINA
September 2012-April 2016
EDUCATION
My Studies
August 2008-May 2012
BACHELOR OF ARTS,
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
August 2004-May 2008
HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA,
COLUMBIA HIGH SCHOOL
"We do not scare easily, we never bow, we never bend, we never break when confronted with crisis. No, we endure, we overcome, and we always, always, always move forward."
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-Joe Biden, upon getting nominated for President in 2020
"I am going to do my best to try to create a country in which children are not living in poverty, in which kids can go to college, in which old people have healthcare. Will I succeed? I can't guarantee you that, but I can tell you from a human point of view it is better to show up than to give up."