U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, who elevated from state senator to Congress out of the botched 2018 midterm election that drew national attention in southeastern North Carolina, will run for state attorney general in 2024.
The announcement came through a radio interview Thursday. The second-term Republican said he and his wife felt the right thing to do was work full-time in North Carolina.
Already running are Republican Thomas Murry and Democrat Tim Dunn. Democrat Josh Stein, winner over Republican Tim O’Neill in 2020 to become attorney general, has already declared candidacy for governor in the 2024 race.
Bishop, 59, first won his congressional seat in a special election after voting irregularities in Bladen County led to 11 people being arrested and Republican Mark Harris – a Baptist preacher who appeared to win on Election Day in November 2018 – tearfully testifying to a state election board he wasn’t sure if he truly won. Bishop’s campaign was linked to the late McCrae Dowless of Bladenboro, mastermind of the ballot harvesting scheme that drew extensive investigative press coverage from New York City, Washington, Charlotte and Raleigh.
Bishop had not run in the 2018 midterms, when Harris got more votes than Democrat Dan McCready. Harris opted out of the redo, and Bishop turned back McCready with a slightly larger share of votes (winning 50.7% to 48.7%) than had Harris over McCready.
Bishop has become well known inside the Beltway for his voice among Republicans, including during the 15-vote squabble leading to Rep. Kevin McCarthy becoming House speaker. He was a Twitter darling in December for breaking down a more than 4,000-page, $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package. And he’s known for hitting hard from his committee positions, in particular the respective committees on Homeland Security and the Judiciary.
He was well-known back home as a state senator in part because he authored what was commonly called the bathroom bill, legislation formally known as House Bill 2 dictating which public bathrooms transgender people could use.
The law caused businesses and organizations, including the NCAA, to reconsider and change promises for events. Fellow Republican Pat McCrory was the governor at the time and eventually lost a 2016 reelection bid by only about 10,000 votes to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, breaking up a GOP trifecta in state government.
The state has had just two attorneys general since the 1992 election. Democrat Michael Easley won then and eight years later defeated the sitting lieutenant governor in the primary on the way to winning election as governor. Cooper succeeded him, held the office 16 years and then defeated McCrory.
A similar Bishop path to the Executive Mansion in Raleigh would not be a surprise.
“Running for North Carolina’s attorney general would certainly make it a pathway for a future gubernatorial run for Bishop, if he decided to do so,” said Dr. Michael Bitzer, Catawba College politics professor. “Considering that’s a path that Cooper and now Stein have pursued, it would make sense and give him a high-profile position from which to launch a run for the governor’s office.”
North Carolina’s last Republican attorney general was Zeb Walser, from 1897 to 1900.
Bishop, a lawyer by trade, has been a Mecklenburg County commissioner and member of the state House in addition to the state Senate.
