The North Carolina 9th Is Holding A Do-Over Election. Here's How To Watch It Like A Pro.
The North Carolina 9th District seat has remained vacant for a third of the 116th Congress — the fallout from a brazen case of election fraud that may have affected the outcome of the 2018 election. Allegedly, a consultant for Republican candidate Mark Harris coordinated an effort to illegally collect unsealed absentee ballots, mislead election authorities and, in some cases, fill out ballots on behalf of voters. As a result, the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted in February to redo the congressional race and later set a new election for Sept. 10. Now, the 9th District will finally vote on a new representative in an election that could go either way. Here’s a look at what’s already happened in the campaign — and what to expect when results roll in after polls close at 7:30 p.m.
1. The candidates
Politically radioactive in the wake of the 2018 scandal, Harris declined to run in the new election, and Republicans nominated state Sen. Dan Bishop in May. On the Democratic side, 2018 candidate Dan McCready is back for a second bite of the apple. A Marine veteran who started a solar-power investment firm, the 36-year-old fits the fresh-faced, moderate mold of many of the Democrats’ most successful 2018 candidates. And buoyed by the national attention he received from Democrats who believe he was cheated out of a congressional seat, McCready has also raised more than $4.8 million in total contributions between Jan. 1 and Aug. 21. By contrast, Bishop has raised less than $1.7 million in total contributions.
But conservative PACs have more than closed the gap. Led by the National Republican Congressional Committee, as of Monday, outside groups had spent more than $6.8 million to campaign either for Bishop or against McCready. Taking both campaign and outside spending into account, pro-Bishop forces have spent at least1 $8.6 million so far this year, and pro-McCready forces have spent $8.4 million.
Last year’s election fraud has played only a small role in this year’s campaign; according to Roll Call, it has surfaced mostly in the smaller, eastern part of the district where the irregularities took place. And instead, McCready has focused on health care — the same issue that helped Democrats flip the House in 2018 — attacking Bishop for voting against a bill to inform patients about low-cost prescription drugs and opposing Medicaid expansion. Meanwhile, Bishop and his allies have hammered McCready for his ties to an organization that lobbied against lower renewable-energy standards, which they claim benefited McCready’s business at the cost of higher utility bills for the general public.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-north-carolina-9th-is-holding-a-do-over-election-heres-how-to-watch-it-like-a-pro/