Double-barrel Victory

      Comments Off on Double-barrel Victory

 

Two special elections for the House of Representatives were held on Tuesday in North Carolina.  These were for NC3 and NC9.  The Republican who had represented NC3 died after winning re-election in 2018.  In NC9 Mark Harris, the incumbent Republican, edged Dan McCready, a smooth talking and personable Democrat by a few hundred votes in 2018.  However, the NC Board of Elections refused to certify the win.

The reason?  Apparently a political consultant for the Harris campaign allegedly mishandled some absentee ballots.   The Board of Elections felt the case was strong enough to call for another election. This mishandling of absentee ballots is currently being litigated in the courts in NC.

It sounds an awful lot like the “harvesting” of ballots that took place in California during the 2018 elections.  In some counties in California, more than 250,000 absentee ballots were “harvested.”  The result was the flipping of a considerable number of House districts from Republican to Democratic hands.  No charges have been filed in California.

The Democrats cast these two elections as tests for 2020.  They did this because, particularly in the case of NC9, they felt they could win a traditionally Republican House district.  This would be “proof” that the people did not support the President.  In NC9 they felt, as did many political pundits, that McCready had a considerable advantage since Harris chose not to seek another term.  It was McCready’s race to lose.  McCready had name recognition since he had been campaigning in 2018.  Supposedly McCready had a 5-point lead in the final days of the campaign.

As most political analysts will tell you, incumbency is usually a significant advantage.  While this seat has traditionally Republican, McCready had come within a few hundred votes of toppling an incumbent.  A good showing and hopefully a win in NC3 would also be a positive for 2020 for the Democrats.

The result?  A conservative blowout.  A double-digit win by Greg Murphy, a physician, for the Republicans in NC3 and a 2-point win for a state legislator named Dan Bishop in NC9 the district that was supposed to be a win for the Democrats according to the polls. Bishop’s margin of victory was considerably higher than Harris’ in 2018.

What happened?  Did McCready make some major errors in how he campaigned?  What about NC3?  Why wasn’t it a lot closer?  NC3 was supposed to be very close.

As far as campaign money spent goes, both parties spent considerable amounts on NC9.  It appears that some $12 to $15 million was spent with the Dems outspending the Republicans by a few percentage points.  So this wasn’t a case where a lopsided amount of money might have influenced voters one way or another.  As with most political campaigns at this level the TV ads were, at times, stomach churning in their negativity.  Both sides were guilty of that.

Analysts will chew on these results for some time.  They will opine this way and that way.  Some may point to AOC, Omar and Tlaib as being negatives for the Democrats.  The Squad is being seen more and more as representing the Democratic Party.

Perhaps in the final analysis, it will come down to being unashamedly conservative and to PDJT’s economy.  Bishop’s campaign website let people know where he stood.  There was no pussy-footing around.

PIC

Dan Bishop website

Greg Murphy was just as strong as Bishop, highlighting limited government, getting rid of the government debt, supporting Trump, supporting the military, supporting the Second Amendment, decent health care, and support for life of the most vulnerable among us.

In the end believing in America may well have been the difference.  And that would be a good thing.  This battle was won by those who support liberty and freedom.

Of course, the Democrats are claiming this as a “moral” victory. Using the word “moral” in connection with the Democrats seems ridiculous since they have no moral sense of right and wrong.

Perhaps the last word on this goes to this guy,