“As a US Marine Corps veteran, clean energy entrepreneur and a job-creator, Dan McCready is ready to get to work serving North Carolina in Congress,” said DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos. “Rampant Republican election fraud robbed thousands of North Carolinians of the right to vote that Dan McCready fought to defend in uniform. Dan McCready’s record of service and his commitment to fighting for lower health care costs and better job opportunities for North Carolina is why he’s clearly the best candidate in this race. This is the kind of leadership North Carolinians deserve and I look forward to Dan’s work to win this race come September.”
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To: Interested Parties
From: Cole Leiter, DCCC National Press Secretary
Date: May 14, 2019
RE: The Case Against Dan Bishop
$3.76 billion dollars lost from North Carolina’s economy. That has been the impact of Senator Bishop’s political career, and it underscores the choice families living in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District face this September. They can elect career politician Senator Bishop, who has spent his decades in office serving the same special interests that control Washington, even at the expense of North Carolinians’ jobs and ability to afford health care. Or they can choose Dan McCready, who joined the Marine Corps after 9/11 and led a platoon during the 2007 surge in Iraq. And McCready’s service to his community didn’t end with his time in uniform: after returning home to North Carolina, Dan and another Marine founded a solar energy investment firm that has put hundreds of North Carolinians to work with good paying jobs, while simultaneously helping North Carolina become the second highest solar producing state in the nation.
It is impossible, however, to consider the contrast between these two men without the context of the election fraud — perpetrated by North Carolina Republicans and Mark Harris — that triggered this special election. Not only did Senator Bishop endorse Mark Harris and donate to Harris’s campaign, but Bishop refused to put the dignity of his state above partisanship and attacked the investigative body that had uncovered Harris’s fraud. Senator Bishop cannot run from his ties to the Harris scandal, and with the Chairman of the NC GOP indicted for bribery, Senator Bishop cannot run from the increasingly creeping corruption of his political party.
In essence, that’s Senator Bishop, true to form; a career politician who will undermine his state’s economy and reputation to serve his political party. The contrast between him and Dan McCready could not be clearer: more of the same destructive politics, or a breath of fresh air who will work to change Washington, starting by refusing to take a dime of corporate PAC money.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
HEADLINE: In N.C., a surprise: In the end, everyone agreed it was election fraud. [Washington Post, 2/23/2019]
Editorial Board: “[Republican candidates] who call the 9th home also bring substantial flaws. They’re led by N.C. Sen. Dan Bishop, the unrepentant author of the discriminatory HB2, which cost the state countless millions in lost jobs and events.” [Charlotte Observer, 5/13/18]
“The board’s three Republicans – Dan Bishop, Jim Puckett and Bill James – have for months said they would reduce the money for CMS… Roberts and the three Republicans voted against the $427 million for the schools.” [Charlotte Observer, 8/10/05]
Editorial Board: “This is not a close call. McCready, a Marine veteran and solar energy entrepreneur, holds centrist views that are much more in step with the district… McCready’s experience in business and his leadership in the military are impressive, and he is one of the best-funded challengers in the country. He has won the support of many of the district’s leading Democrats, including some of Charlotte’s most successful business people… We strongly recommend McCready.” [Charlotte Observer, Editorial, 4/20/2018]
“Eastover, one of Charlotte’s wealthiest neighborhoods, isn’t known as a bastion of liberalism. But its streets were filled with hundreds of cars last month as some of Charlotte’s biggest names streamed into Sarah and Tim Belk’s home to support a little-known, until now, 34-year-old Democrat named Dan McCready.” [Charlotte Observer, 4/7/2018]
“McCready was a first-time candidate driven by a degree of patriotism and idealism I don’t encounter in politicians all that often. He’s 35 but could pass for 10 years younger.” [NY Times, 3/26/2019]
Senator Bishop: Career Political Extremist
Senator Bishop thinks your prescription drugs are too affordable
Health care continues to be the number one concern for voters, but it’s the last thing Senator Bishop wants to talk about. Senator Bishop won’t tell voters how he’ll work to bring down health care costs, let alone tell North Carolinians with pre-existing conditions how he would stop them from being priced out of insurance coverage.
In fact, there are only three things we know about Senator Bishop’s health care priorities:
- We know that Senator Bishop is opposed to expanding insurance coverage to hundreds of thousands of working North Carolinians;
- We know that Senator Bishop was 1 of only 10 lawmakers to support charging some cancer patients more than others;
- And we know Senator Bishop will stand with pharmaceutical companies over everyday North Carolinians struggling to afford their prescriptions. Bishop’s record speaks for itself: he was the only Senator, from either party, to vote with pharmaceutical companies and against consumers on a bill that gave people access to lower-cost prescription drugs in North Carolina.
In contrast, Dan McCready won’t take a dime of corporate PAC money and is ready to take on big drug companies to bring down costs for hardworking North Carolinians, make sure people with pre-existing conditions are protected from greedy insurance companies, and work so our seniors get the care they’ve earned.
Senator Bishop cracks down on kids who want to eat and learn
Unblinking disdain for the needs of children is a constant theme throughout Senator Bishop’s political career. After voting to cut food assistance for 51,000 North Carolina children, including 7,000 kids in his home of Mecklenburg County, Senator Bishop never apologized.
Removing food assistance for kids is not an isolated incidence and instead follows a career long trend for the Senator of balancing budgets on the backs of North Carolina’s children. As a County Commissioner early in his political career, Bishop led an attempt by Republicans to reduce funding for school construction, instead favoring packing more students into already crowded classrooms. Fortunately for school aged kids in Charlotte, Bishop was unsuccessful.
In sharp contrast, Dan McCready is a proud product of North Carolina’s public schools and knows first-hand how important investing in our children’s futures is for the communities they live in. As a father of four, Dan wants to make sure every child regardless of where they live has access to a quality education and that the educators who are preparing them receive the compensation they deserve.
Senator Bishop’s “historic” achievement: costing NC $3.76 billion
Throughout his political career, Senator Bishop has consistently shown that there is no cost for North Carolina that that should get in the way of his own extremist agenda. Unfortunately for working North Carolinians, they were the ones covering the bill after Senator Bishop’s crowning achievement cost North Carolina’s economy more than $3.76 billion. And while the Senator described his bill as “historic,” a “historic job killer” would be more accurate. According to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, approximately 2,000 new jobs headed for Charlotte did not come to the area because of their concerns with Senator Bishop’s job killing HB2.
Fortunately for voters in North Carolina’s 9th District, they have a better option than a career politician who has spent his time singlehandedly killing jobs and opportunity. Unlike Senator Bishop, Dan McCready has spent his time after serving in the Marine Corps founding a business and creating good paying jobs right there in North Carolina. Dan’s solar investment business has not only helped North Carolina become the second highest solar producing state in the country, but it has created 700 hundred new jobs, putting people across North Carolina to work while doing so. Now that is a contrast.
PATH TO VICTORY
It tells you how well Dan McCready’s profile fits North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District when you consider that Republicans had to run the biggest election fraud in modern NC history in order to “win” that race in 2018… by 905 votes.
That 905 “vote” margin in favor of Republicans comes in a district that President Trump won by 11.9-points in 2016, Governor Cooper lost by more than 13-points, and President Obama lost by 8.8 points in 2008, despite winning statewide in North Carolina. Simply put, Dan McCready’s 2018 performance in NC-09 is the district’s high-water mark, **even while Republicans were stealing an immeasurable number of votes.**
And there is ample evidence that Dan can build on 2018. Once again, Dan starts this general election with a significant cash on hand advantage, the same background as a Marine Corps Veteran and job creator, and an opponent whose record of scaring away jobs and destroying $3.76 billion of North Carolina’s economy will go over like a lead balloon across the district, but specifically in the vote-rich Charlotte suburbs.
To win this special election, Dan McCready needs to hold his commanding 2018 margins in Anson, Cumberland, Mecklenburg, Richmond, Robeson, and Scotland counties. In fact, the only place where Dan McCready has room to grow on his 2018 performance is in Bladen County, where the Republican run election fraud was centered.