Something extraordinary is happening in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional district.
Held since 1963 by Republicans (most recently Robert Pittenger), the district is in the midst of a do-over election right now, after GOP-funded election fraud tilted its 2018 election in favor of Baptist preacher Mark Harris by a razor-thin 905 vote margin.
That election’s result was decertified earlier this year. Ten Republicans then vied for the GOP do-over nomination, while unchallenged Democrat Dan McCready enjoyed months of time to re-organize, and to raise millions of dollars in small-donor contributions. GOP state Rep. Dan Bishop, an early investor in alt-right social media site Gab and the author of North Carolina’s notorious ‘bathroom bill,’ won the GOP nod to take on McCready, a Marine Iraq War vet and solar energy entrepreneur. This race has turned extremely expensive, with outside PACs pouring millions into attack ads against McCready in recent weeks.
Early voting is now underway in the contest, and turnout is low (as expected in any special election). But among the relatively modest number of voters so far, an historically unprecedented fraction are what we call ‘Raging Blue Grannies’: Democratic women age 65+.
This race is widely viewed as something of a bellwether for 2020’s election, both because NC09’s electorate looks a lot like America’s in miniature and because it pits a compelling young Democratic candidate against a rabid aging trump-humper.
Read the full data-driven story here at EQV Analytics: NC09 Special Election: Data Dashboard. We will update that page’s stats every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from now through election day, Sept. 10.