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2019 Special Election
A Major Leaguer, Maybe a star
Dan McCready http://www.danmccready.com/ is running again. To represent NC 09. NC 09 has been without representation. They have had to redo the 2018 election.
North Carolina’s ninth district runs along the center of the southern border of North Carolina. It includes some of Charlotte and its suburbs. Charlotte is North Carolina’s largest city, with a population approaching 900,000 and a metropolitan area of 2.5 million. Its major industry is banking. Corporate headquarters of Bank of America and Wells Fargo are in Charlotte. Charlotte has become a major league city. The Charlotte Hornets are in the National Basketball Association. The Carolina Panthers are in the National Football League.
In 2018, NC 09’s politics were anything but major league. Mark Harris, a far right Pastor defeated the incumbent Republican in the Primary to become the Republican candidate for Congress. In the Primary and the General Election, he relied on operative McCrae Dowles. Dowless collected absentee ballots illegally and may have completed incomplete ballots. Harris says he was unaware of Dowless’s methods. Maybe. Dowless’s results were so implausible that few were shocked at accusations of cheating.
Harris appeared to have won the 2018 General Election by 905 votes. He is not running in 2019.
Dan McCready conceded before the cheating had become apparent. Republicans claimed that even if he did cheat, Dowless could not have been responsible for 905 votes. The State Board of Elections was not persuaded and refused to certify Harris as the winner. The Board called for a new election.
The new election will be on September 10. Dan Bishop won the Republican Primary with a substantial plurality. Not long ago, winning the Republican Primary was the same as election. Not necessarily this time.
Is Dan Bishop ready for major league competition? He seems like the kind of candidate Republicans like these days. Endorsed by the Club for Growth in the primary, he believes taxes should be reduced. Whatever the current level of taxes, they should be reduced.
Bishop is also a veteran of the culture wars. He was the author of North Carolina’s bathroom law that required people to use the bathroom of the gender they were born into — forcing, for instance, a transgender female to use a male public bathroom. He is undaunted by the strong business reaction against this law and North Carolina’s partial retreat from it. The Club for Growth is not bothered either. But Bishop’s ability to compete at this level is unclear.
Though he is a Democrat, Dan McCready is a good fit for this military-admiring, business-oriented district filled with people who take themselves seriously. He joined the marines after finishing at Duke. He was a freshman during 9/11 and decided then on military service. His core memories of the war include leading sixty-five marines into battle during the 2007 surge and being baptized in the Euphrates River.
After the Marines, Harvard Business School. He was a consultant for McKinsey. He and a fellow Marine started a business in Charlotte. They created solar farms. Now they own the second largest solar farm company in the country. Dan McCready would not stop. He started another business. He sells hand made American goods online. His company – This Land.
Dan McCready can win this special election. He raised significant money in 2018, more in 2019. This election will be expensive. The election scandal has put Republicans on the defensive.
In 2018, Dan McCready had a target. He did what he could to make sure he was not a target himself. Dan McCready may have been a bold soldier and bold businessman, but he is a careful candidate. Republicans complained about his slogan: “people over party.” He did not tell the voters enough about his views. Republicans wanted his opinions on gun control, taxes, health care, immigration.
Dan McCready’s response was precise and careful. On gun safety, for instance, he described support for comprehensive background checks and closing background check loopholes. He stressed comfort with and familiarity with guns, four years in the military that included combat, personal gun ownership, and support for the 2nd Amendment.
Dan McCready wants to join ten other Democratic veterans in the freshman class. Like Max Rose (Army), Chrissy Houlahan (Air Force), and Conor Lamb (Marines), Dan McCready (Marines) retired as a captain. Like Rose and Houlahan and Lamb and the other Democratic freshman veterans, he would be a Democratic moderate.
Help Dan McCready http://www.danmccready.com/ get elected North Carolina is changing. It might have already changed – except for gerrymandered Congressional and state legislative seats. Help Dan McCready change North Carolina’s Congressional Delegation. Provide him with some support. There are not tmany months left in this campaign. Give something now to what will be an expensive election.
Remember these southern Democrats running for office in 2019:
John Bel Edwards Reelection as Governor of Louisiana
Jim Hood Current AG, running for Governor of Mississippi
Jennifer Riley Collins Running for Mississippi Attorney General
Andy Beshear Current AG, running for Governor of Kentucky
Remember this southern Democrat running for reelection in 2020
Doug Jones Reelection as Senator from Alabama
Remember these southern Democrats – candidates for reelection to a second term and candidates in special elections.
Joe Cunningham Reelection to SC 01
Elaine Luria Reelection to VA 02
Lucy McBath Reelection to GA 06
Dan McCready Special Election for NC 09
Debbie Mucarcel-Powell Reelection to FL 26
Allen Thomas Special Election for NC 03
THE SOUTH IS CHANGING. BE PART OF THAT CHANGE. HELP IT HAPPEN.
