Y’all know all about the NC 9th Congressional District special election that’s a do-over ordered by the NC state Board of Elections because of demonstrated election fraud by Republican Mark Harris’ campaign, not voter fraud. So NC is down one Congressional seat in Congress, and the do-over primary date is Tuesday, May 14th. The guy who probably should have won that election in 2018 is Democrat Dan McCready, and he faces no primary opposition. On the Republican side, there are 10 candidates, and then there’s a Libertarian candidate and a Green Party candidate. Hoo boy!
But wait just a minute….that’s not even the wildest NC race coming up! Did you know that we have a second vacant Congressional seat? Yep, Republican Walter Jones (formerly a Democrat) who represented the 3rd Congressional District, passed away February 10 of this year. Now take a guess at how many folks filed to run for that seat? Why, lookee here, Gomer, it’s a food fight! Seventeen Republicans, six Democrats, two Libertarians (yes, we’re gonna have a Libertarian primary!) and one out-in-right-field (and that’s saying something in today’s climate) member of the Constitutional Party.
So the primary date for this OTHER seat is, get this, Tuesday, April 30th. That’s right….about six weeks away! Absentee by mail voting started last Friday, March 15th; one-stop early voting starts April 10th.
With six Democrats running in parts of 17 counties (oh, did I fail to mention that the 3rd Congressional District of NC covers almost the entire NC coast as well as most of the Pamlico Sound and Intercoastal Waterway?), how does a thoughtful, intelligent Democratic or independent voter (we have open primaries in NC, which means that an unaffiliated voter may request any primary ballot he or she chooses: Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian) decide who to vote for?
Well, one way is to go to a local meet-n-greet to hear and question the candidate. I live on Hatteras Island, in Dare County. Dare County encompasses not only Hatteras Island, but most of the rest of the Outer Banks, including Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, and a bunch more places you’ve probably never heard of. Last Saturday night, I got to hear and question Retired Colonel Richard Bew in Kill Devil Hills, and yesterday morning, I heard and questioned him again in Avon on Hatteras Island.
A couple of comments: First of all, no one in the local Democratic party could remember the last time a political candidate of either party came out to our stretch of barrier islands 35 miles from the mainland, although someone allowed as how Walter Jones had come out here once twenty or so years ago. And with regard to Hatteras Island, which is even remoter (yes, I know it should be more remote, but I don’t care), no one could remember a Congressional candidate ever coming that far.
So Retired Colonel Richard Bew gets props for that, for sure. Here’s more about him: he retired from 29 years in the Marine Corps in October 2018, he’s married with two children, one in the US Coast Guard, and one who’s an EMT; he lives in Newport, NC, not far from Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point, and the job he did for the last five years was being Liaison from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Congress. And look at all the medals on his jacket. Can you spell IMPRESSIVE?!
Where he stands on the issues: here’s what he said in his stump speech. He’s not taking any PAC money; he supports affordable health care for all (while not being wedded to one particular way of getting there; he says first we have to agree on the goal, which made sense to me); and he opposes offshore drilling as well as seismic testing, which believe me, is a huge deal in coastal North Carolina. He said, frankly, that he thought that was a no-brainer, since almost every coastal county in NC is part of the 3rd Congressional District, and the science to support the harmful effects of offshore drilling and seismic testing is real. He’s a science-based kind of guy.
Sounds good, right? Well, this is a pretty red district (rural NC, no shocker there, +12 Republican), but here’s his strategy for winning: he says the Republicans are going to nominate the most Trump-loving nutter they can find in that field of seventeen candidates, and he will be the only one, because of his military service, who can appeal to independents and disaffected Republicans without sacrificing his/our Democratic values. Sounds like a plan? Well,
I thought so.
Below are some pictures of him interacting with voters, and here’s a link to his website: www.richardbew.com
Thanks for reading.