Dan Bishop

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"James Daniel Bishop" redirects here. For American artist, see James Bishop (artist).
For others with the name, see Daniel Bishop (disambiguation).
Dan Bishop
Representative Dan Bishop of NC.jpg
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from North Carolina's 9th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
September 17, 2019
Preceded byRobert Pittenger
Member of the North Carolina Senate
from the 39th district
In office
January 1, 2017 – September 17, 2019
Preceded byRobert A. Rucho
Succeeded byRob Bryan
Member of the North Carolina House of Representatives
from the 104th district
In office
January 1, 2015 – January 1, 2017
Preceded byRuth Samuelson
Succeeded byAndy Dulin
Member of the
Mecklenburg County Commission
from the 5th district
In office
January 2005 – December 2008
Preceded byRuth Samuelson[1]
Succeeded byNeil Cooksey[2]
Personal details
Born
James Daniel Bishop

(1964-07-01) July 1, 1964 (age 57)
Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Jo Bishop
Children1
EducationUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BS, JD)
WebsiteHouse website

James Daniel Bishop (born July 1, 1964)[3][4] is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 9th congressional district since 2019. A Republican, his district includes south-central Mecklenburg, Union, Anson, Richmond, Scotland, Robeson, Bladen, and Cumberland Counties. He served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 2015 to 2017 and the Mecklenburg County Commission from 2005 to 2009. He served in the North Carolina State Senate from 2017 to 2019.

Bishop was the lead author of North Carolina's so-called "bathroom bill", which prohibited transgender people from using public restrooms other than those of their biological sex as defined on their birth certificates.[5][6]

On September 10, 2019, Bishop won the special election to the U.S. House of Representatives with 50.7% of the vote to Dan McCready's 48.7%.[7][8]

Education[]

Bishop received a B.S. in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1986 and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1990.[9] He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

County Commission and North Carolina House of Representatives (2005–2016)[]

Bishop with President Donald Trump in September 2019

Bishop was a member of the Mecklenburg County Commission from 2004 to 2008. After a six-year absence from politics, he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives from a south Charlotte seat for a single term (2015–17), running against a Libertarian opponent, Eric Cable, but without a Democratic one.[10] Bishop's district was House District 104.[9] He succeeded Ruth Samuelson, who retired from the House.[10]

North Carolina State Senate[]

Bishop won his North Carolina State Senate District 39 seat in November 2016 to succeed Bob Rucho, who was not seeking reelection. He received 58,739 votes (52.81%), defeating Democrat Lloyd Scher, who received 44,655 (47.19%).[11]

During the 2017–18 legislative session, Bishop co-chaired the Select Committee on Judicial Reform and Redistricting, was vice-chair of the Select Committee on Elections, and a member of several other committees.[12]

Bishop has attracted attention for statements attacking journalists, which have been likened to statements by Donald Trump.[13] On one occasion, he criticized the Raleigh press corps over coverage of the state budget, calling them the "jihad media."[14]

LGBT rights[]

Bishop was the architect of the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, or House Bill 2.[15][16][6] This controversial "bathroom bill" restricted transgender people from using gender-segregated public facilities other than those identified for use by their biological sex as defined on their birth certificates.[15] The bill, signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory, also invalidated a local nondiscrimination law passed by the Charlotte City Council and prohibited any local government in North Carolina from enacting new protections for gay, lesbian, or transgender people.[16] Bishop used his sponsorship of HB 2 in fundraising emails, stating that he stood up to the "radical transgender agenda".[15] His role in promoting HB 2 raised his profile.[15]

In 2017, after a public backlash against the legislation and economic harms of $3.7 billion, HB 2 was repealed and replaced with new compromise legislation brokered between Governor Roy Cooper and the leadership of the state legislature.[6] Bishop was the sole senator to make a floor speech against HB 2's revocation, calling it a "betrayal of principle".[17] In emails from Bishop subsequently made public under North Carolina's public-records law, Bishop compared LGBT rights activists to the Taliban.[18]

After the release of a video showing a group of people following McCrory, shouting "shame" and calling him a bigot, Bishop said he would introduce legislation "to make it a crime to threaten, intimidate, or retaliate against a present or former North Carolina official in the course of, or on account of, the performance of his or her duties."[19]

U.S. House of Representatives[]

Elections[]

2019 special election[]

Main article: 2019 North Carolina's 9th congressional district special election

On March 14, 2019, Bishop entered the 9th congressional district special election.[20] He won the May 14 Republican primary with 47% of the vote.[21][22] The election had been called after the results of the regular election were thrown out due to irregularities with absentee ballots in the district's eastern portion. The Republican nominee in that contest, Mark Harris, had defeated Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes, the closest race in the district in decades. Much of the district's share of Mecklenburg County had not been represented by a Democrat since 1953, and the 9th has been in Republican hands without interruption since it was configured as a Charlotte-based district in 1963.

In the September 10 general election, Bishop defeated McCready, 50.7% to 48.7%. He won mainly by dominating the more rural areas of the district, as well as Union County, the district's largest whole county. The closeness of the race was remarkable given the 9th's heavy Republican bent on paper; it had a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+8.

Tenure[]

Bishop took office on September 17, 2019.

Bishop, along with all other Senate and House Republicans, voted against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.[23]

2020 presidential election[]

In December 2020, Bishop was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Biden defeated[24][25] Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.[26][27][28]

On January 6, 2021, Bishop was one of 147 Republican lawmakers who objected to the certification of electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and forced an emergency recess of Congress.[29][30] Later that month, he voted against impeaching Trump for his role in inciting the mob to storm the Capitol.[31]

Iraq[]

In June 2021, Bishop was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the AUMF against Iraq.[32][33]

Defense[]

Bishop was among 19 House Republicans to vote against the final passage of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.[34]

Immigration[]

Bishop voted against the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020, which authorizes DHS to nearly double the available H-2B visas for the remainder of FY 2020.[35][36]

Bishop voted against the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 1158), which effectively prohibits ICE from cooperating with Health and Human Services to detain or remove illegal alien sponsors of unaccompanied alien children (UACs).[37]

Committee assignments[]

Caucus memberships[]

  • Freedom Caucus[38]
  • Republican Study Committee[39]
  • House Campus Free Speech Caucus
  • Election Integrity Caucus

Contributions to the far-right social network Gab[]

In August 2017, Bishop contributed $500 toward the establishment of the social network Gab, a website criticized for its white supremacist and far-right content.[40] He said he made the contribution in response to what he called a California "tech giants' Big Brother routine", referring to companies such as PayPal and Facebook canceling accounts used by organizers and funders of the Unite the Right rally, in Charlottesville, Virginia.[13] Bishop's crowdfunding contribution attracted attention the next year, after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.[40] He responded that he was being "smeared", saying, "I don't use Gab, but if its management allows its users to promote violence, anti-Semitism, and racism on the platform they have misled investors and they will be gone quickly, and rightfully so."[40] The contribution came up again a week after the 2019 El Paso shooting and a month before Bishop's House election. A group called Stand Up Republic aired criticism of his contribution to Gab as part of a $500,000 advertising campaign. Bishop criticized the advertising, calling it "defamatory".[41]

Electoral history[]

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina 5th District County Commissioner General Election, 2004[1]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Dan Bishop 42,452 100.0
Total votes 42,452 100.0
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina 5th District County Commissioner General Election, 2006[2]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Dan Bishop (incumbent) 23,925 100.0
Total votes 23,925 100.0
North Carolina 104th State House District General Election, 2014[42]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Dan Bishop 18,576 74.78
Libertarian Eric Cable 6,266 25.22
Total votes 24,842 100.0
North Carolina 39th State Senate District General Election, 2016[43]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Dan Bishop 58,739 56.81
Democratic Lloyd Scher 44,655 43.19
Total votes 103,394 100.0
North Carolina 39th State Senate District Republican Primary, 2018[44]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Dan Bishop (incumbent) 8,778 71.28
Republican Beth Monaghan 3,537 28.72
Total votes 12,315 100.0
North Carolina 39th State Senate District General Election, 2018[45]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Dan Bishop (incumbent) 49,698 52.89
Democratic Chad Stachowicz 44,273 47.11
Total votes 93,971 100.0
North Carolina 9th Congressional District Special Republican Primary, 2019[46]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Dan Bishop 14,405 47.68
Republican Stony Rushing 5,882 19.47
Republican Matthew Ridenhour 5,166 17.10
Republican Leigh Brown 2,672 8.84
Republican Stevie Rivenbark Hull 906 3.00
Republican Fern Shubert 438 1.45
Republican Chris Anglin 382 1.26
Republican Kathie Day 193 0.64
Republican Gary Dunn 105 0.35
Republican Albert Lee Wiley Jr. 62 0.21
Total votes 30,211 100.0
North Carolina 9th Congressional District Special Election, 2019[47]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Dan Bishop 96,573 50.69 +1.44
Democratic Dan McCready 92,785 48.70 -0.23
Libertarian Jeff Scott 773 0.41 -1.40
Green Allen Smith 375 0.20 N/A
Total votes 190,506 100.0 N/A
North Carolina 9th Congressional District General Election, 2020[48]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Dan Bishop 224,661 55.59 +4.9
Democratic Cynthia Wallace 179,463 44.41 -4.29
Total votes 404,124 100.0 +12.13

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Our Campaigns - Mecklenburg County Commissioner - District 5 Race - Nov 02, 2004". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved Sep 14, 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Our Campaigns - Mecklenburg County Commissioner - District 5 Race - Nov 07, 2006". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved Sep 14, 2019.
  3. ^ "2006-2008 Board of County Commissioners" (PDF). Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
  4. ^ The Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory - Google Books. 2001. ISBN 9781561604395. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
  5. ^ Staff (September 6, 2019). "NC-09: Republicans Risk Special Election Loss in Critical 2020 State". The Cook Political Report. Retrieved September 8, 2019. In May, Republican voters chose Bishop, an attorney best known for sponsoring North Carolina's so-called "bathroom bill," as their new nominee.
  6. ^ a b c Kilgore, Ed (2019-05-13). "Bathroom Bill Author Most Likely GOP Nominee in North Carolina Special Election". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2019-05-18.
  7. ^ Live results: North Carolina elections, Politico, September 10, 2019.
  8. ^ Republican Dan Bishop wins special election for House seat in North Carolina special election, NBC News projects, NBC News, September 10, 2019.
  9. ^ a b NC Senate District 39: Dan Bishop faces Lloyd Scher, Charlotte Observer (October 18, 2016).
  10. ^ a b Fred Clasen-Kelly, NC House District 104: Former county commissioner re-emerges as leader for state House seat, Charlotte Observer (November 4, 2014).
  11. ^ "11/08/2016 General Election Results". Raleigh, North Carolina: North Carolina State Board of Elections. 8 November 2016.
  12. ^ Senator Dan Bishop (Rep): Committee Assignments, 2017-2018 Session, North Carolina General Assembly.
  13. ^ a b Billy Corriher, Meet the N.C. legislator who invested in the alt-right's social media platform, Facing South, Institute for Southern Studies (November 2, 2018).
  14. ^ Colin Campbell, NC senator blasts 'jihad media' on Twitter in response to budget article, News & Observer (June 22, 2017).
  15. ^ a b c d Colin Campbell, Rep. Dan Bishop: Leader of House Bill 2, Charlotte Observer (April 23, 2016).
  16. ^ a b Steve Harrison, N.C. Gov Pat McCrory signs into law bill restricting LGBT protections, Charlotte Observer (March 23, 2016).
  17. ^ Colin Campbell, Craig Jarvis & Lynn Bonner, NC Senate, House approve HB2 repeal compromise, News & Observer (March 30, 2017).
  18. ^ Erik Spanberg, EXCLUSIVE: Inside HB 2 author's legislative emails on LGBT issues, Charlotte Business Journal (June 9, 2016).
  19. ^ Abbie Bennett, Does Pat McCrory need protection? One NC senator thinks so, News & Observer (January 23, 2017).
  20. ^ "Sponsor of N Carolina anti-LGBT bill to run for US House". WRAL. Associated Press. March 14, 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2019.[permanent dead link]
  21. ^ Republican voters nominate N.C. state lawmaker who sponsored controversial 'bathroom bill' in 9th Congressional District race The Washington Post, Felicia Sonmez and Amy Gardner, May 14, 2019. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  22. ^ North Carolina 9th District special election results, The Washington Post, May 14, 2019. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  23. ^ Hulse, Carl (March 6, 2021). "After Stimulus Victory in Senate, Reality Sinks in: Bipartisanship Is Dead". The New York Times.
  24. ^ Blood, Michael R.; Riccardi, Nicholas (December 5, 2020). "Biden officially secures enough electors to become president". AP News. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  25. ^ Figueroa, Ariana (10 December 2020). "More than half of U.S. House Republicans back Texas suit claiming election 'irregularities'". Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  26. ^ Liptak, Adam (2020-12-11). "Supreme Court Rejects Texas Suit Seeking to Subvert Election". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 11, 2020. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  27. ^ "Order in Pending Case" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United States. 2020-12-11. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 11, 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  28. ^ Diaz, Daniella. "Brief from 126 Republicans supporting Texas lawsuit in Supreme Court". CNN. Archived from the original on December 12, 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  29. ^ Yourish, Karen; Buchanan, Larry; Lu, Denise (January 7, 2021). "The 147 Republicans Who Voted to Overturn Election Results". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-10.
  30. ^ "Bishop Objects to GA, PA, MI & WI Electoral Certifications". 5 January 2021.
  31. ^ "NC House members vote along party lines as Trump impeached for second time". News & Observer. 2021.
  32. ^ "House votes to repeal 2002 Iraq War authorization". NBC News.
  33. ^ https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2021/roll172.xml
  34. ^ "S. 1605: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 -- House Vote #405 -- Dec 7, 2021".
  35. ^ "Text - H.R.1865 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020". 20 December 2019.
  36. ^ "Roll Call 689 | Bill Number: H. R. 1865". Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. December 17, 2019.
  37. ^ "H.R. 1158: DHS Cyber Hunt and Incident Response Teams Act … -- House Vote #690 -- Dec 17, 2019".
  38. ^ HFF (September 13, 2019), Two Big Wins in North Carolina, House Freedom Fund
  39. ^ "Membership". Republican Study Committee. 2017-12-06. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  40. ^ a b c Jim Morrill, NC lawmaker says he's being 'smeared' for investment in site tied to white supremacists, Charlotte Observer (October 31, 2018).
  41. ^ Morrill, Jim (12 August 2019). "New ad in NC9 focuses on Bishop's investment in a media platform used by extremists". The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  42. ^ "11/04/2014 Official General Election Results - Statewide". North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  43. ^ "11/08/2016 Official General Election Results - Statewide". North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  44. ^ "05/08/2018 Official Local Election Results - Statewide". North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  45. ^ "11/06/2018 Official General Election Results - Statewide". North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  46. ^ "05/14/2019 Official Local Election Results - Statewide". North Carolina State Board of Elections. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  47. ^ "US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISTRICT 09 - REP (VOTE FOR 1)". NC State Board of Elections. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  48. ^ "US House of Representatives District 09 - Rep (Vote for 1)". NC State Board of Elections. Retrieved January 26, 2022.

External links[]

Political offices
Preceded by Member of the Mecklenburg County Commission
from the 5th district
2005–2009 		Succeeded by
Neil Cooksey
North Carolina House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the North Carolina House of Representatives
from the 104th district
2015–2017 		Succeeded by
North Carolina Senate
Preceded by Member of the North Carolina Senate
from the 39th district
2017–2019 		Succeeded by
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
Robert Pittenger
 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from North Carolina's 9th congressional district
2019–present 		Incumbent
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by
Fred Keller
 United States representatives by seniority
364th 		Succeeded by
Greg Murphy
Retrieved from ""