So it’s one Special Election down and three to go for 2019. Unfortunately things didn’t quite go our way in Pennsylvania this year, but there are still two opportunities present to flip a Republican House seat. I’ve decided I’m going to write this one in advance though and thus give people a bit more time to actually see this piece. The two elections in question are both in North Carolina in its 3rd and 9th Congressional Districts Respectively. The General elections for both states will be held on September 10th.

North Carolina is a red state, but it isn’t the most red state in the country. This can be most evidence by the fact that there is a Democratic Governor who won in 2016, which was a pretty shit year for Democrats as we are well aware. The backlash that the previous Anti LGBT incumbent Pat McCrory received was immense and it does show that enough people will vote Democrat if the shitiness of the Republican candidate is well documented enough.

No House seats were turned blue in 2018, but these two elections do give North Carolinians a chance to chance to rectify that. I’ll start with the election that you are less likely to have heard of, that being the Special Election for North Carolina’s 3rd District.

This Special Election was called because the incumbent Walter Beaman Jones died back in February. Walter was a raging bigot who frequently voted against women’s and LGBT rights, but he did have a few decent decisions such as his criticisms of the Bush and Trump administrations, as well as his support of Democrat’s push to increase the federal minimum wage. I’d be glad to see him go in any other time period, but considering that he died in an age where every Republican politician is a corrupt scumbag who serves no purpose than to kiss Trump’s ass, it is sad that his replacement will likely be worse unless their Democratic opponent manages a come from behind victory.

Currently the Republican is undetermined, but will be decided via a Runoff Election on July 9th. The election is between Gregory Murphy and Joan Perry, whose campaigns are identical nonsense consisting of “protect baby fetus, more guns, and build the wall to keep all the brown people out so they don’t dirk err jerbs!”

Joan Perry’s campaign page flat out says in big bold font that she puts The Bible before The Constitution in terms of principles, even thought that is the EXACT FUCKING OPPOSITE of what a Government official is supposed to do! You do realize there are people of other faiths don’t you? And that there are people who rightfully chose not to believe in your mystical sky fairy who thinks that not using his name in vein is more worthy of being one of the ten commandment than “thou shalt not fucking rape???”

Gregory Murphy has a similar hot take on his page in that he has “support for President Trump” in his “issues” segment, because the Republican party is in such desperate need of a Bible Belt misogynist who doesn’t think anyone deserves protections unless they are a cop or a non sentient clump of cells that they swear can feel pain. Also he voted in favor of that horrifically transphobic bathroom bill that cost the state close to $4,000,000,000. So one can obviously see that what little positive qualities existed in Walter Jones will not be present in the Republican nominee either way, but all the negative qualities will be. Update: The nominee is Gregory Murphy.

The Democratic nominee is former Greenville Mayor Allen M. Thomas, but he doesn’t have much of a shot to be honest. North Carolina’s district is among the top three most red districts in the state and it was the only district where the incumbent ran unopposed in 2018. On top of that, there were twice as many people who voted in the Republican primaries as the Democratic ones, so I don’t have my hopes up for an upset now or in any election unless North Carolina becomes significantly less gerrymandered.

I admit that I let my hopes up too big in PA’s special election. While there is a higher chance of Allen Thomas winning than Friedenberg had, there still isn’t much hope. If this pisses you off, then good. You should be. If you live in this district, get out and vote for Allen Thomas, but if you have money to spare to contribute to one Congressional campaign, I suggest you save it for the next one.

The one race that you are most likely to have heard of is the one in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. What is noteworthy about this election is that unlike the other two special elections held this year, there was never a winner announced for the 2018 election for this district. It came down between a progressive Democrat named Dan McCready, and his far right scumbag opponent Mark Harris.

Back when I wrote my 2018 Midterm piece, Mark Harris stuck out at me in just how much of a bigoted scumbag he was. I’ll let his words speak for themselves.

In one generation, you and I have witnessed this country sliding from a nation who once shared a moral vision based on Judeo-Christian ethics to a nation floundering in moral decay. In one generation, we have watched our nation who once believed in lifelong marriages to the same spouse to a divorce rate now well over 50%. We have watched in one generation where homosexuality was once criminalized, to now, we see the criminalization of Christianity.

Yeah, he’s a fucking scumbag. Despite there not being a winner announced, there was an election that took place and Mark Harris did have more votes. It is noteworthy that Harris only managed 49.3% of the vote, which was an almost 9% decrease from his predecessor’s win in 2016. Note that this occurred in an R+8 district so it is clear that Harris was polarizing even to them.

But here’s the best part, the reason the results of the election weren’t certified is because Mark Harris fucking cheated! Even when he pulled a Richard Nixon and stuffed the ballot boxes, he still had a very small lead over McCready in an R+8 district. How fucking pathetic is that? In a just world, Harris would be disqualified and McCready would be the winner by default, but they instead decided we needed to have another Republican primary and another election.

The primary has passed and it turns out that the person who won is just as bad as Mark Harris. That person is Dan Bishop, often cited as the architect behind that previously mentioned bathroom bill that cost the state billions of dollars and their Republican Governor an election, and who voted in favor of allowing “religious exemption” to same sex marraige. On top of this, Dan Bishop has compared Black Lives Matter to Neo Nazis and contributed $500 of his own money towards the creation of the white supremacist Twitter clone known as Gab. Needless to say, it is quite vital that we do everything we can to help McCready win this.

Just from looking at the campaign sites for the two Dans, it is easy to see that McCready makes an infinitely more compelling case. Namely one can see that McCready actually talks about the issues with a remote amount of clarity while Bishop does not even have an issues page and gives no details about policy. Bishop instead focuses entirely on attack ads and smears against McCready which really does say a lot about his character.

Unfortunately we are in an age where being more qualified for the position is not a determining factor in elections. Look no further than our current President for confirmation of that. It could be easy to assume that Bishop will win this simply because he’s in a red leaning district, but that was also the case against Mark Harris and he likely would have lost if he didn’t cheat.

The point of this is that McCready actually has a shot if the results against Mark Harris are anything to go by. It seems entirely likely that far right douchebags like Mark Harris and Dan Bishop simply won’t appeal to more moderate Republicans or swing voters, and that the previous candidate committing election fraud might also leave a bad taste in their mouth. On top of this, there is also the fact that many of the major Democratic Presidential candidate are stepping in to help McCready’s campaign out and are contributing so that is a good sign. Don’t see why they couldn’t have stepped in to help Marc Friedenberg or Allen Thomas, but they will likely make a pretty big difference.

And this is where the obligatory call to action comes into play. Allen Thomas likely isn’t going to win, but McCready genuinely has a shot. I know some may not care for him cause he’s running as a moderate, but he’s a hell of a lot better than letting his bigoted piece of shit opponent win. If you want to contribute to his campaign then you can do so here.

And most importantly, remember to get out and vote for McCready if you live in North Carolina’s 9th district.

Update: The results are in, and it unfortunately looks like Democrats took an L in both districts. Greg Murphy has won with 61.7% of the vote. Allen Thomas’s 37.5% is the best performance a Democrat has had in this district in decades. Meanwhile, Bathroom Bishop has beaten Dan McCready with a razor thin margin below 2%. This is in a district that has not had a Democratic win since the 60s by the way.

It is also worth noting that there is still one more US House Special Election in Wisconsin’s 7th district, meaning that Democrats have one more chance to flip a Republican House seat in 2019 unless another one decides to resign.

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