How News Anchor Hallie Jackson Prepares for NBC's 24-Hour Election Coverage

The anchor of 'Hallie Jackson NOW' and Sunday 'NBC Nightly News' is gearing up for the biggest night in politics.

Staying hyped up at work is never a problem for Hallie Jackson. It’s simple; she loves what she does.

The NBC News anchor and senior Washington correspondent was home on the Saturday night in July when an assassination attempt was carried out against former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump. Without missing a beat, Jackson ran out of her house, phone adhered to her ear, on the way to the network’s Washington D.C. bureau. Two days later, she was en route to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to cover the Republican National Convention. A week after that, she was in D.C.'s NBC studios to anchor a special report dissecting President Joe Biden’s unexpected exit from the presidential race and Vice President Kamala Harris's ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket. She was back in the field a couple weeks later for the Democratic National Convention.

It was a typical summer for the journalist in a very atypical time in our country. Between hosting her streaming show, Hallie Jackson NOW, Monday through Friday and NBC Nightly News on Sunday (a role she took on in April), Jackson exists in the thick of politics. After months of reporting, tomorrow is her Super Bowl.

She sat down with Harris for an interview on October 22, and then dove straight into prepping for Election Day—or rather “Election Week”—coverage. Throughout all this, she has been ping ponging between her home in Washington D.C., where she lives with her partner, Frank Thorp, and their 4-year-old daughter, Monroe, and New York City, NBC Studios’ HQ, as if it’s a regular morning commute.

Even amongst such unprecedented events, when she hops on a Zoom call with me six days before Election Day, Jackson tells me she has a “full tank.” (She credits a restorative family vacation to Maine in August for a bulk of that.) Jackson has had her foot on the accelerator for, well, months, and she’s staying on cruise control as the country crosses the finish line of this historic election.

But don’t confuse her chipper demeanor or waterfall of gratitude for flippancy. She punctuates each of her responses to my questions with a reminder that there is so much at stake in this decision, and the nation needs to take it seriously.

While every election brings with it a flurry of emotions and bouts of anxiety for many Americans, for Jackson, this isn’t about feelings. How does a news anchor prepare for the biggest night in politics? By getting to work.

“I'm trying to just focus on the work that I have to do, because it is a mountain,” Jackson explains. “I've been living and breathing politics.”

Jackson, who is celebrating a decade at NBC, has been working toward this night for years—she was a field reporter during the 2016 election and NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent during the 2020 cycle. However, this time around, she has a different job.

“I'm in this, what I call, ‘Reported Analysis Role.’ I'm contributing to the conversation at the desk,” she explains. “I'm looking at the data. I'm helping to analyze it. I'm working with the millions of people behind the scenes who are helping us analyze that data and communicating that to our audience.”

Jackson has three types of preparation. There’s the “school prep”: researching, reading, studying facts, and taking copious notes is standard for the self-proclaimed “super nerd.” Then, the “reporting prep,” which means reaching out to campaigns, talking to voters across the country, and looking at data as she gears up to handle the exit polls for primetime coverage. Even while on air, Jackson texts and emails her correspondents and field reporters for information in real time.

Lastly, there’s the “logistics prep”: the technicalities of producing broadcast news. NBC will offer a record 24 hours of live coverage starting at 5 p.m. on November 5 to affiliate stations, in addition to NBC News NOW’s 40+ live hours of election coverage starting at 7 a.m. on November 5 and running until 11 p.m. on November 6. The entire NBC team—from producers in the control room; cameramen rolling the footage; reporters, legal experts, and analysts spanning the newsroom; and anchors at the desk—kicked into high gear with Election Night rehearsals starting October 30. Planning for the broadcast, down to the Rockefeller Center backdrop that will be projected onto the green screen behind the anchors, began a year and a half ago.

“You can't ever rehearse for Election Night itself, but you can practice the mechanics of the workflow and your thought process,” Jackson explains. “We want to feel really locked and loaded heading into the big night, so that what we can focus on—what I can totally focus on—is serving the audience…We have to do justice to this moment.”

The anchors practice using the touch screens that display their interactive infographics, their choreography moving around the room, where they’re sitting. They run simulations using test data (for example, what it would look like if a particular swing state goes blue or red) to give them an idea of possible numbers and how they would analyze them.

Jackson says these run-throughs also allow anchors to practice a more surprising skill: humility. “I don't know what's going to happen, and I don't pretend like I know what's going to happen. I get asked this question by friends, neighbors, colleagues all the time: ‘What do you think?’” she explains. “I can point you to data, but ultimately, none of us know what's going to happen. We have to wait and see how the vote turns out. Bringing some humility to the night is really important.”

While Jackson’s work is consequential, when she walks into NBC’s homebase, 30 Rockefeller Center, she only wants to bring good vibes. “Is there any other vibe to be had?” she asks, noting that this is easy to do when your co-anchors are your friends.

Jackson and Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker’s children hang out together; she considers Today Show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie her mentor; she still reminisces about having dinner with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt in Iowa in 2016 during primary season; she praises that NBC News Chief Political Analyst Chuck Todd “knows everything about everything politics”; and her rhythm with Top Story anchor Tom Llamas is as fluid as water.

“We all have a relationship with each other, and that matters—that everybody trusts that everybody else is going to know their stuff,” Jackson says. “Election coverage is stressful enough as it is. We don't need to add to that vibe on set. The amazing thing about our team is that everybody goes in ready to work, ready to crush, but also ready to be a normal person while we're doing it.”

She means it when she says “normal person.” Jackson’s ability to transition from an analytical breakdown to a light joke on-screen continues behind-the-scenes. When discussing Election Night, she quips about needing a “Blue Bottle [coffee] IV drip”; shares that after working from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., she’ll use her mid-shift break to sneak in a nap before returning to air to report for the Today Show at 6 a.m.; and keeps her “emotional support hair spray bottle” nearby on set because she hates when hair falls in her face. She remembers who she is doing all of this for: normal people.

“I think about one of my best friends who lives in Seattle, who is a mom of three. She is a full-time-job, high-powered baddie, who doesn't always have time to be engaged in the news the way that I am. How would I explain this to her?” she explains of her approach to newscasting. “But I'm also thinking about somebody who feels the stakes of this election in a really personal way. What are they going to want to know on Election Night? They're going to want to know the bottom line and how it affects their life.”

The words Jackson communicates on-air during Election Night are her main priority, which makes other considerations, like how she is presenting herself on TV, easy. That, and the fact that she can’t wear a single shade of green, since she’ll be sitting in front of a green screen. “Guess what color most of my power suits are? They’re green. So, half my wardrobe is immediately out,” she jokes.

Jackson thinks she’ll go with the Veronica Beard plum pantsuit she wore during Day 1 of rehearsals, which is equal parts fabulous and practical, as she’ll be mic’d up and running around. “I say to my daughter a lot, she'll pick out an outfit, and she's four years old: ‘Do you feel strong and brave? Did that make you feel strong and brave?’ And I think about that,” she says, adding that she’ll be keeping her beauty consistent, too. “The point is to strip everything else away. All I think about on Election Night is the election.”

Even so, the election is not Jackson’s entire life. She stays sane amid the madness by setting boundaries and stepping away when she can. “I want to be not just an excellent journalist, but an incredible daughter and a great friend and an awesome mom,” Jackson says.

She notes that this balancing act is no easy task, but witnessing other “corporate baddies” crush it at work and be their kid’s hero helps her see the way. She lives by Nora Roberts’s “Glass ball” theory. “There are glass balls and plastic balls. As a woman, you're always juggling so much, and you are going to drop some balls. That is just a fact. Which of your balls today are plastic? Which of them are glass? Which can you not drop and which do you just have to let go of?” she says. “Today, I'll miss a meeting because of [Monroe’s] Halloween parade. That is a meeting ball that I will drop because the glass ball is my kid. Every day is a different set of balls.”

On November 5, her glass ball will be election coverage, and she’ll be holding onto it real tight.