September 10, 2019

Dan Bishop Wins North Carolina’s 9th District Special Election

It’s finally over.

Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/AP

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At long last, North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District has elected a member of Congress: Republican Dan Bishop has won Tuesday’s special election, according to the New York Times. The race drew an enormous amount of money and involved the second-most outside spending of any House special election in history, according to the Charlotte Observer.

It’s been quite a journey. Voters originally cast their ballots in November 2018, when Democrat Dan McCready was facing off against Mark Harris, the original GOP nominee for the seat. Harris had defeated incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger in the 2018 GOP primary. In November, Harris appeared to narrowly win the general election—by just 905 votes—but the election was invalidated amid allegations that a Harris consultant had committed absentee ballot fraud. After the state Board of Elections voted to hold a new election, Harris dropped out because of health concerns.

A new primary was held in May, and Republicans chose Bishop—best known for sponsoring the state’s controversial “bathroom bill” that prohibited gender-neutral restrooms—as their nominee. Bishop’s right-wing tendencies extend far beyond the bathroom bill: He regularly refers to abortions as “infanticides,” was an early investor in the controversial social media site Gab, and has ties to a far-right supporter of the Proud Boys. On Monday, President Donald Trump held a rally for Bishop in North Carolina.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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