NC-09: Candidate filing closed Friday for the special election for North Carolina’s 9th District, and the state has a list of candidates here. We’ll take a look at the field in our next Digest, but we wanted to highlight the last-minute entrance of a few Republicans, one who might emerge as a major candidate for Team Red, and the other who might turn out to be a major headache for them.
Leigh Thomas Brown, a former official at the National Association of Realtors, jumped in the contest on Friday. The NAR’s political arm is famous for spending plenty of money in congressional contests for candidates on both sides of the aisle, and the Charlotte Observer’s Jim Morrill relays that Brown is “said to be able to match” state Sen. Dan Bishop in fundraising. Brown ran for a state House seat in 2014 and lost the primary 62-38 to incumbent Larry Pittman.
Team Red also got an unwelcome additional candidate Friday when attorney Chris Anglin jumped in. Anglin was a registered Democrat until just before he entered the 2018 contest for state Supreme Court as a Republican, a move that spoiled Team Red’s scheme to keep an opponent of their gerrymanders, Democrat Anita Earls, off the court.
The GOP state legislature had recently changed the rules for electing Supreme Court justices that turned these once nonpartisan races into explicitly partisan contests. Furthermore, they eliminated the primary for 2018 only: Instead, a jumble of candidates from both parties would compete on a single general election ballot where all it took to win would be a plurality. Republicans calculated that Democrats would split the vote and allow the GOP candidate to claim victory, but Anglin’s campaign caused that plan to backfire. Instead, Earls was the only Democrat on the ballot while Supreme Justice Barbara Jackson and Anglin were both listed as Republicans.
The GOP passed a new law in response that would have stripped Anglin of his party affiliation on the ballot because he hadn't been a registered Republican for 90 days prior to launching his campaign. However, Anglin successfully sued to block that, and he remained on the ballot as a Republican. In November Earls defeated Jackson 49.6-34.1, while Anglin claimed 16.4 percent of the vote.
Anglin’s impact on this congressional race isn’t likely to be as bad for the GOP as his judicial campaign was, but he could very well make a difference. North Carolina requires a runoff in primary contests where no one takes at least 30 percent of the vote, and with 10 candidates, including Anglin, on the ballot, there’s a very good chance of that happening.
Marine veteran Dan McCready, who was the Democratic nominee in the 2018 race that was tainted by GOP election fraud, has his primary to himself, so he can focus entirely on the general election. However, it’s not clear when the general election would be. The primary will be May 14, and what happens next will depend on if a GOP runoff is needed. If there is a runoff, it would take place on Sept. 10, and the general election would be Nov. 5. If no such runoff is required, though, the general would be held on Sept. 10. McCready would probably benefit from the GOP contest going into overtime, and Anglin’s campaign could make that outcome more likely.
North Carolina GOP officials are quite pissed to see Anglin back. State party chair Robin Hayes said Friday that “Anglin is not a Republican” and that he “will not be allowed to access any GOP data, information, or infrastructure.” In response, Anglin threatened to sue if he’s denied access to party data provided to other GOP candidates. GOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse, who remains as tactful as ever, tweeted back, “OMG you are a complete idiot” and told Anglin, “Go to H@ll.”