#ncpol: About last night …..
We had two out-of-season congressional races. Republicans won both, so the drive-bys have had little to say since the votes were tallied. The chattering class wants to put this all on Trump. Yes, I think he deserves some credit, but there are some other things to talk about.
Greg Murphy. This was an abbreviated election calendar in the Third. Many candidates tried to run their races on TV and radio like they would in a normal election year. Murphy ran a boots-on-the-ground, hands-on type of grassroots campaign — and it paid off BIG TIME.
This guy’s ground organization will make him a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future. He didn’t just beat Joan Perry and Allen Thomas, he obliterated them. Future primary and general election opponents in the Third District will have to think really hard about whether they want to be on the small end of a 60-40 percent beat-down. That kind of beating appears to be what the good doctor is prescribing these days.
Murphy carried every county but Hyde. He managed to win big in Pitt — the home county he and Thomas share — by a 60-38 margin. (The folks who knew both of them best bet big on Murphy.) Murphy even dramatically improved on his performance in Onslow during the runoff with Perry — this time taking nearly 69% of the vote.
Murphy’s record in the General Assembly sure left a lot for conservatives to think about and think over. The endorsement by and campaign assistance from soon-to-be colleagues Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan helped to assuage those fears. The campaign assistance from the Trump organization, and President Trump himself, also helped close the sale for most people with doubts about Murphy.
Greg Murphy said he’s going to DC to be a teammate and ally with Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows and Donald Trump. I don’t think a lot of people saw a problem with that.
Dan Bishop. We had the same kind of abbreviated schedule in this race. But Bishop had an advantage as an incumbent legislator who had run elections in parts of the district before. He had the name ID early on.
This was the famous re-do election brought on by the drive-bys and the other lefties slandering Mark Harris and demeaning the people of the state. Granted, this time around, the GOP campaign did a better job of defining McCready for what he really is.
Bishop beat McCready by roughly 4,000 votes — nearly FIVE TIMES the victory margin of Mark Harris.
It helped that the state GOP had plenty of eyes on the ground in places like Robeson County — where monkey business went down last time and looked to be occurring again.
The Bishop campaign managed to close the R vs. D vote gap in a number of the district’s eastern counties — where McCready had invested so heavily and had been counting so heavily on a big turnout and wide victory margin.
The Takeaway: North Carolina conservatives are gaining two new leaders who will be substantially more conservative than the men they replace. Tuesday also shoots a big hole in the Purple NC theory — that a conservative who wears his passion on his sleeve can’t win.
“The most formidable weapon against errors of any kind is reason”.
Thomas Paine
The voters of the 3rd and 9th reasoned “we the people” are under attack by evil.
That’s why they voted like they did.
The Third District is proud of our new Congressman elect Dr. Greg Murphy who, his team who showed, once again, what grass roots support is all about. To take all but one of our 17 counties, in the third election since April with voter fatigue, is unprecedented. A man of principals and of God he will represent our large and diverse District well. Congrats also to Dan Bishop for his win but I’ll relish our win in the Third and continue to be proud of Greg Murphy, his team and everyone who worked at the Campaign, District, County and Precinct levels to bring this one home. Almost 113,000 voters turned out, over 25% of registered voters in a Special Election that is grassroots activism at its best. Thanks for the help from Raleigh and DC, the Murphy train is on a parallel track to the Trump Train.
Their victories, especially Dan Bishop’s, are a result of the leadership of the splendid new team of Michael Wheatley and Miriam Chu, their hard work and vigilance. I’m thrilled to not have to witness those idiots, Hayes & Woodhouse, wash another election down the drain!
There were also municipal primaries in Charlotte/Mecklenburg that largely (except for one uninspiring council Republican primary race) drove out only Democrats to vote. So that presumably drove up additional turnout for McCready, whereas there were no other incentives drawing Mecklenburg Republicans out besides the Bishop/McCready race. Otherwise it could have been an even greater margin in favor of Bishop.
Other things to talk about should include how it took two close elections (one in which Republicans cheated on absentee ballots), in illegally gerrymandered by the Republicans districts to get a win. At least two visits by Trump and one by Pence on top of that. You can call it a victory but if that is winning, you don’t have much to offer.
You’re leaving out a lot of context which is where you err. Haven’t you heard? The USSS has rejected the notion of an “illegal gerrymander”, at least in terms of partisan advantage. Sure it was a close race but I’d cite that as evidence that there’s nothing gerrymandered about district 9. Secondly, there’s less evidence that this race was decided by redistricting advantage and more evidence that rural county minority voters are getting “counterwoke” to the fact that their traditional values aren’t welcome in your socialist party anymore and it’s time to find a new home.
If we compare 2018 and 2019 in the 9th, Bishop had a great ground game and was a better candidate than Harris.
This may have also helped:
“The result is that, with all [DEMOCRAT] absentee ballot harvesting operations in Bladen, Cumberland, and Robeson counties apparently shut down, McCready lost ground in all three counties. The difference was especially pronounced in Robeson County, were McCready’s share of the total vote dropped from 56 percent in 2018 to 50 percent in 2019.”
https://www.nccivitas.org/civitas-review/ballot-harvesting-operations-9th-district-shut-bishop-wins-redo-election/