© 2024 WFAE
90.7 Charlotte 93.7 Southern Pines 90.3 Hickory 106.1 Laurinburg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Six NC Republican House Members Sign Brief Supporting Texas Lawsuit To Stop Electors In Four States

Ninth District Congressman Dan Bishop is one of six North Carolina representatives to support a Texas lawsuit blocking electors in four states.
WBTV screenshot
Ninth District Congressman Dan Bishop is one of six North Carolina representatives to support a Texas lawsuit blocking electors in four states.

Six North Carolina Republican House members are backing a long-shot lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general that seeks to stop the certification of electors in four states President Trump lost.

Ninth District Congressman Dan Bishop, a Charlotte attorney, is among the six to sign an amicus brief supporting the lawsuit. The others are Ted Budd, Richard Hudson, Virginia Foxx, Greg Murphy and David Rouzer.

106 Republican members of Congress signed the brief.

Eighteen states have also backed the lawsuit, filed with the U.S. Supreme Court Monday. Legal experts have said the lawsuit has no bearing, and that Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan will certify their electors next week as scheduled.

Supporters of President Trump have lost almost all of their legal challenges to the 2020 election. Experts expect the Supreme Court to reject the Texas lawsuit as well.

Bishop has said that non-elected officials in several states made changes to existing election law.

In North Carolina, that was a point of contention when determining how absentee mail ballots with missing information – such as no witness signature - could be fixed. The Democratic-majority Board of Elections said the county elections boards could let voters sign “cure affidavits” by saying a ballot was legitimate, even if it didn’t have a witness signature.

Those issues in North Carolina were ultimately settled by the courts.

“Unless the Supreme Court stops the sabotage of State election laws, every election will be stolen, and the Constitution’s delegation of election procedure solely to State legislatures will become a dead letter,” Bishop said in a statement to WFAE. “The Court must defend the Constitution, not buckle to Dems and their media.”

He tweeted Thursday that “The American people will not stand for a rigged election.”

Three members of the state’s Republican delegation didn’t sign the brief. Outgoing Congressmen George Holding and Mark Walker, and Patrick McHenry.

The seat for the 11th District in the mountains is currently vacant. Republican Madison Cawthorn will be sworn in in January.

Walker has said that he is running for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2022.

Steve Harrison is WFAE's politics and government reporter. Prior to joining WFAE, Steve worked at the Charlotte Observer, where he started on the business desk, then covered politics extensively as the Observer’s lead city government reporter. Steve also spent 10 years with the Miami Herald. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Sporting News and Sports Illustrated.