Curator’s Note: Below is my comment sent to the NYT. In addition, the Charlotte Observer wrote that turnout was 37% and that McCready lost in Cumberland where he won in 2018. This indicates that the Republicans were able to up the Republican voter turnout in a small county. Voter turnout is the key to winning in 2020.
“Dan Bishop owes his narrow victory to the Citizen’s United decision, $ 6.8 Million from organizations outside of NC, an onsite visit from the president, extreme gerrymandering in NC and tribalism in the Republican party. Formidable . . . but 2 percentage points under these circumstances in a red district that has not voted Democrat since the 1960s is a decent showing and we can learn from this campaign for future races. Let’s prepare for Nov 5, 2019. “Country Over Party”.
“The National Republican Congressional Committee is the top spender in the race, pouring $3.1 million into anti-McCready attack ads. The group is spending far more than the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee despite having less cash on hand, signaling that the group believes it needs to win this race heading into 2020.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC tied to House Republican leaders, spent $2.3 million on ads attacking McCready. And Club for Growth Action, an anti-tax group, spent just under $1 million on ads attacking McCready and canvassing for Bishop.”
Read more here: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article234767102.html#storylink=cpy”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dan Bishop, a Republican state senator, scored a narrow victory on Tuesday in a special House election in North Carolina that demonstrated President Trump’s appeal with his political base but also highlighted his party’s deepening unpopularity with suburban voters.
Mr. Bishop defeated Dan McCready, a moderate Democrat, one day after Mr. Trump made a full-throated plea for support for the Republican at a rally on the conservative end of a Charlotte-to-Fayetteville district, which the president carried by nearly 12 points in 2016.
With most votes counted on Tuesday night, Mr. Bishop was ahead by about two percentage points, according to The Associated Press.
The fierce fight for the Ninth Congressional District also brought to an end a tortured political drama: The 2018 midterm race for the seat, in which Mr. McCready barely lost against a different Republican, was in question for months because of evidence of election fraud on the G.O.P. side. The election was finally thrown out, an embarrassing conclusion for state Republicans who had carved the lines of the deeply red district.
