GOP wins in North Carolina election do-over

North Carolina finally wrapped up its congressional midterm elections on Tuesday. Republican Dan Bishop won the 9th District in a tight contest with Democrat Dan McCready, 51 percent to 49 percent. Both parties upped their spending on the campaign when polls showed the two candidates neck and neck last month, and President Donald Trump held a rally for Bishop on the eve of the election.

Why was there a special election? McCready, a businessman, appeared to lose to Republican Mark Harris, a former pastor, in the 2018 midterm election. The two sought a seat formerly held by Republican Robert Pittenger, who lost to Harris in the GOP primary. The State Board of Elections refused to certify last November’s results over evidence of ballot fraud, leading to Tuesday’s revote. Harris declined to run again, opening the door for Bishop, who won a GOP primary in May. Despite losing again, McCready did perform better in some suburbs than he did last year.

Republicans also won Tuesday in a special election for North Carolina’s 3rd District, where Greg Murphy easily defeated his Democratic challenger, Allen Thomas, by 24 percentage points. The seat has sat vacant since Republican Walter Jones Jr. died in February.

Dig deeper: Check out Open Secrets to see the amount of money spent and raised by North Carolina’s 9th District candidates.