Free Republic

Insiders say a multimillion dollar McKinsey-fueled overhaul of the country’s intelligence community has left it less effective. Dan McCready, congressional candidate in North Carolina worked for McKinsey. McKinsey has secured close to $1 billion in government contracts in just the past 10 years. Its work with the intelligence community goes back at least a decade — the firm played a central role in helping the FBI transform its intelligence mission in 2005 in response to pressure from the White House to restructure the bureau’s budget. “They were receiving a generous consulting fee, but did not appear from my vantage to...

After over two years of campaigns and a voided November general election over allegations of ballot fraud, voters in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District will finally choose their next congressman on Tuesday. As the campaign comes to a close, President Trump is front and center in the election: Republican Dan Bishop has explicitly tied himself to the president and cast his opponent, Democrat Dan McCready, as a radical socialist. The president will also be front and center at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Monday, where Mr. Trump will stump for Bishop. A recent TV ad by Bishop's campaign...

Republicans are scrambling to avoid what would be a devastating loss in the special House election in North Carolina’s 9th District. Internal polls from both sides show Republican Dan Bishop and Democrat Dan McCready running neck and neck in a traditional GOP stronghold that was unexpectedly competitive in 2018. But privately, several Republican officials and strategists have conceded that Democrats may have an edge in voter enthusiasm in a district that President Trump won by nearly 12 points in 2016. Republicans have sought to nationalize the race by honing in on issues like Trump’s proposed border wall and labeling McCready...

*** following the landslide victory in the Republican primary by conservative State Sen. Dan Bishop, few are making any big bets on Democrats taking the Charlotte-based 9th District in the special election Sept. 10. Bishop is a solid supporter of President Trump and clearly cut from the swashbuckling mold of many of the conservatives elected to House in the Republican sweeps of 2010 and '14. In surprise results, he rolled up 48 percent of the vote over eight opponents. "Dan Bishop powered his way through the 'redo' Republican primary last night, easily defeating all comers," political analyst Marc Rotterman told...

At least two Democrats have reimbursed the campaign contributions made by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who has been at the center of numerous controversies since she was sworn in as a freshman congresswoman last January. North Carolina’s 9th congressional district candidate Dan McCready refunded $2,000 to Omar in March after she donated to his campaign last November ahead of the 2018 midterms, WSOC reported Wednesday. A spokesman for McCready told the news station he'd refunded Omar’s contribution because “he believes there is no place for divisiveness in politics, and McCready did not feel it is appropriate to accept the donation.”

North Carolina’s elections director said Monday she found evidence of fraud tainting the District 9 House race, the last undecided contest nearly three months after the 2018 midterms. Election Director Kim Strach said her investigation found “a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme” connected to Republican candidate Mark Harris. She said they also discovered that “efforts were made to obstruct this investigation and the testimony provided at this hearing.” Ms. Strach detailed the findings at an evidentiary hearing before a new state Board of Elections, which will decide whether to certify the Nov. 6 results or call for...

RALEIGH The state’s investigation into alleged election fraud by the Mark Harris campaign will continue, a judge ruled Tuesday morning. Harris is the Republican candidate who appeared to narrowly win an election for North Carolina’s 9th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 elections. But the state has not certified his victory, due to an ongoing investigation into alleged fraud related to mail-in absentee ballots. Harris and his legal team had asked Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway to order the state to certify the results of the election despite the investigation, which could then...

House Democrats will refuse to seat North Carolina Republican candidate Mark Harris on Jan. 3 as state election authorities investigate election fraud claims surrounding his race, incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Friday. Hoyer told The Washington Post that Democrats would oppose any effort to seat Harris, who leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes in the state's 9th District.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Thursday that Democrats are closely monitoring fraud allegations in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District but said they would only call for a new election if it’s impossible to determine the winner. “The House Administration Committee will have full investigative authority to determine the winner of the election,” Pelosi said. “And … only if it’s impossible to determine who the winner is, would we take the extraordinary step of calling for a new election.” The midterm results in North Carolina’s 9th District have been embroiled in controversy since a number of voters have emerged...

A top Democrat on Tuesday threatened not to seat the Republican winner in a closely contested North Carolina House race when the new Congress takes power in January, citing allegations of "serious fraudulent activity" involving possible ballot harvesting. State election officials unanimously refused to certify the results of the race on Friday and may call for a new election, potentially erasing what is now unofficially a 905-vote lead by Republican Mark Harris over Democrat Dan McCready in the fight for the 9th Congressional District. The margin is less than half a percentage point of total votes cast. Incoming Majority Leader...

Mounting evidence of voter fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District could indefinitely delay the certification of a winner, as state election officials investigate whether hundreds of absentee ballots were illegally cast or destroyed. The North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement has no plans to certify Republican Mark Harris’s 905-vote victory over Democrat Dan McCready, according to an agenda of a board meeting scheduled for Friday morning. The board is collecting sworn statements from voters in rural Bladen and Robeson counties, near the South Carolina border, who described people coming to their doors and urging them to...

Republican Mark Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by five percentage points for North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, according to a new poll by the New York Times and Sienna College. Harris was favored by 47 percent respondents while McCready was favored by 42 percent. Eleven percent of voters are undecided in the race for the seat, which stretches from Republican areas in south Charlotte and Union County to Fayetteville. The seat is considered one of the Democrats' best opportunities to flip a seat held by the GOP. Harris narrowly defeated Robert Pittenger in the May primary... This is the first...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Dan McCready is a boyish ex-Marine, a solar energy entrepreneur and a favorite candidate of national Democrats hoping to nab a Republican seat in their battle for the House. His company, Double Time Capital, says its mission is to hasten “our country’s important transition to clean energy” because of climate change. But as a candidate in a conservative-tilting battleground district, Mr. McCready’s environmental message is much more muted. Climate change is not directly named among 13 top issues on his website. And though his latest TV commercial features solar panels and boasts that the 35-year-old, first-time candidate...