RALEIGH -- The Democrat in a North Carolina U.S. House special election ordered after a ballot-collection scandal has a big financial lead over his Republican rival in the race to represent a GOP-leaning district.
Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission late Monday showed Democrat Dan McCready collected double the contributions as Republican Dan Bishop since late April.
McCready reported raising $1.37 million in the 9th Congressional District race and Bishop received $655,000 during the period, which included the Republican primary in which Bishop won the GOP nomination over nine other candidates.
McCready had almost $1.8 million in cash at the start of July to spend ahead of September's special election — five times as much as Bishop.
Vice President Mike Pence is headlining a fundraiser for Bishop in Fayetteville on Wednesday.
Bishop's report shows he leaned more heavily than McCready on contributions from other politicians as well as political action committees like those representing soybean producers and auto dealers. About 78% of Bishop's contributions during the period came from individuals, compared to about 90% for McCready.
McCready's campaign said the money raised will allow it to run an aggressive campaign ahead of balloting on Sept. 10. Bishop's spokeswoman and consultants didn't respond to an invitation for comment on Tuesday.
The district includes all or part of eight counties along the South Carolina border, turning north into Charlotte on its western end and hooking north into Fayetteville in the east. It has been won by Republicans since 1963. President Donald Trump won it by 12 percentage points in 2016.
But McCready has built name recognition in more than two years of campaigning for the congressional seat — the result of his race last year against Republican Mark Harris being voided and this year's special election ordered. McCready's campaign said it has raised nearly $3.9 million since November.
Harris, who appeared to have narrowly beaten McCready last November, stepped aside after the state elections board in February found last year's contest was so tainted that a new election was required . An investigation found Harris recruited a political operative in a rural county who collected and could have tampered with mail-in ballots. The operative has since been charged with state election crimes but has professed his innocence.
