Good Riddance, Dan Bishop
North Carolina’s gerrymandered congressional map has puked up 7 very far right Republicans as part of the state’s delegation. Re-gerrymandered, it will be even worse starting in January. None of the Republicans in the delegation— or running for the newly gerrymandered sets— are moderates or even really mainstream conservatives. They’re all from the GOP’s far right fringe. That’s the North Carolina GOP. And, by far, the most extremist of them, is the one North Carolinian who joined the House Freedom Caucus, neo-fascist sociopath Dan Bishop. His district, between Greensboro and Charlotte, but not to close to either, gave Trump a 17.8 point win over Biden, the worst district in the state. He fits the folks there— but, after just 3 chaotic terms in the House— he won’t be coming back. Instead, he’s the virulently homophobic MAGA candidate for state Attorney General. Obsessed with gay sex and white nationalism, he’s best known for his involvement in election fraud, anti-semitism and as the architect of the (repealed) bathroom bill.
He’s running against Democrat Jeff Jackson, whose congressional seat was gerrymandered into a red hellhole last year. Public polling has been scant in the face but WRAL released one a couple of weeks ago that shows Jackson beating Bishop 43-36%. Since then, the Mark Robinson scandals have come down onto the state’s elections like a ton of bricks.
While more insane crap has come out about Robinson’s crackpottery, while Josh Stein consolidates a fat double digit lead over him and while Republicans abandon Robinson en masse, from his own campaign staff, his donors, GOP governors in neighboring states who have withdrawn their endorsements to the Republican governors Association, which was largely paying for his ad campaign— and no longer is… only one big name North Carolina Republican is standing by him: Bishop, the same kind of extremist, sex-obsessed maniac. On Tuesday David Nir and Jeff Singer reported that “Bishop remains an ardent defender of the most toxic Republican candidate in America. Bishop, who is running for state attorney general, dedicated part of his address at a Donald Trump rally in Wilmington on Saturday to fire off evidence-free accusations insinuating that Democrats had concocted last week's CNN story about Robinson's old comments on a pornographic site. ‘This week in North Carolina, Democrats suddenly abandoned their aversion to hack and dump, rolled out a meticulously timed and coordinated character assassination, and then moved immediately to smear by association,’ the congressman told the crowd. ‘Their aim, they say, is to disgrace not just one but all Republican candidates, in the name of decency, they say.’”
Jackson has emphasized the danger of making Bishop, who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race, North Carolina's top law enforcement official, and the Republican has shown little interest in assuaging skeptics. Bishop told journalist Bryan Anderson earlier this month that, while he denounced the Jan. 6 riot, “Kamala Harris in her debate the other day said police officers died at the Capitol, multiple police officers died at the Capitol on Jan. 6— that's a lie.”
The candidate continued, “And then they suggest that police officers who committed suicide months and months later were somehow caused by Jan. 6. That is such a stretch.” After Anderson offered Bishop the chance to clarify what he'd said, he replied, “There may be some officer whose subsequent suicide had to do with the traumatic event of that day, but you can't assume it.”
Newest Mark Robinson revelations:
He publicly advocated for police to shoot Al Sharpton— “Closing his mouth would do this Nation good.”
Racist anti-Obama screed: “Obama IS a blackface step-in fectch-it [sic] for liberal white America.”
Racist anti-Oprah Winfrey screed: “It’s Oprah the wicked witch, leading the way to sexing up the children!”
As a nc resident living entirely too close to Dan Bishop’s district, I can confirm everything Howie says here. Looking forward to hearing you on David Feldman again one of these days and more to the point, seeing Dan Bishop lose.