Dan Bishop, a U.S. politician of the Republican Party, participates in a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the United States, on Sept. 9, 2019. Dan Bishop narrowly won the special election in the Ninth Congressional District of the U.S. state of North Carolina on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Dan McCready. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Dan Bishop, a U.S. politician of the Republican Party, narrowly won the special election in the Ninth Congressional District of the U.S. state of North Carolina on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Dan McCready.
Bishop edged out McCready by fewer than 5,000 votes, resulting in 50.7 percent to 48.7 precent. The percentage points do not always add up to 100 due to rounding.
"WE DID IT #NC09!!!! Thank you North Carolina!!!" Bishop claimed his victory in a tweet.
Bishop, a 55-year-old lawyer born in Charlotte, has been a state senator in North Carolina since January 2017. As a loyalist for U.S. President Donald Trump, he focused on his alignment with Trump throughout the campaign.
Trump tweeted his support repeatedly for Bishop and campaigned for him Monday in Fayetteville, a military town at the far eastern edges of the district.
McCready, a 36-year-old veteran and entrepreneur, had campaigned as a centrist, emphasizing his service as a Marine in the Iraq War in 2013 and pledging to put country over party.
The special election is a do-over of the 2018 midterm election, in which McCready lost to Republican candidate Mark Harris by 905 votes. The result was invalidated after Harris was found related to allegations of ballot fraud in rural Bladen County.
The Ninth Congressional District, which stretches from the Charlotte suburbs to rural areas further east, has been held by Republican since 1963. Tuesday's vote was seen as a test run for Trump's re-election in 2020.
After the 2018 midterm election witnessed Democrats flip several Republican-held House seats in districts that Trump won in 2016, the unusually close race is well another manifestation showing that moderate and suburban voters in traditionally Republican-leaning districts are reluctant to support Trump.
