Bishop was the lead author of North Carolina's Public Facilities Privacy &Security Act,commonly called the bathroom bill,which prohibited transgender people from using public restrooms other than those of their biological sex as defined on their birth certificates.[5][6] As a result of backlash,North Carolina lost a significant amount of revenue from companies and other organizations who chose to withdraw their investments in the state.[7]
Bishop was a member of the Mecklenburg County Commission from 2004 to 2008. After a six-year absence from politics,he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives from a south Charlotte seat for a single term (2015–17),running against a Libertarian opponent,Eric Cable,but without a Democratic one.[16] Bishop's district was House District 104.[15] He succeeded Ruth Samuelson,who retired from the House.[16]
North Carolina State Senate
Bishop’s official State Senate portrait,2019
Bishop won his North Carolina State Senate District 39 seat in November 2016 to succeed Bob Rucho,who was not seeking reelection. He received 58,739 votes (52.81%),defeating Democrat Lloyd Scher,who received 44,655 (47.19%).[17]
During the 2017–18 legislative session,Bishop co-chaired the Select Committee on Judicial Reform and Redistricting,was vice-chair of the Select Committee on Elections,and a member of several other committees.[18]
Bishop has attracted attention for statements attacking journalists,which have been likened to statements by Donald Trump.[19] On one occasion,he criticized the Raleigh press corps over coverage of the state budget,calling them the "jihad media."[20]
Bathroom bill and backlash
Bishop was the architect of the Public Facilities Privacy &Security Act,or House Bill2.[21][22][6] This controversial "bathroom bill" restricted transgender people from using gender-segregated public facilities other than those identified for use by their biological sex as defined on their birth certificates.[21] The bill,signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory,also invalidated a local nondiscrimination law passed by the Charlotte City Council and prohibited any local government in North Carolina from enacting new protections for gay,lesbian,or transgender people.[22] Bishop used his sponsorship of HB2 in fundraising emails,stating that he stood up to the "radical transgender agenda".[21] His role in promoting HB2 raised his profile.[21]
In 2017,after a public backlash against the legislation and economic harms of $3.7 billion,HB2 was repealed and replaced with new compromise legislation brokered between Governor Roy Cooper and the leadership of the state legislature.[6] Bishop was the sole senator to make a floor speech against HB2's revocation,calling it a "betrayal of principle".[23] In emails from Bishop subsequently made public under North Carolina's public-records law,Bishop compared LGBT rights activists to the Taliban.[24]
After the release of a video showing a group of people following McCrory,shouting "shame" and calling him a bigot,Bishop said he would introduce legislation "to make it a crime to threaten,intimidate,or retaliate against a present or former North Carolina official in the course of,or on account of,the performance of his or her duties."[25]
On March 14,2019,Bishop entered the 9th congressional district special election.[26] He won the May 14 Republican primary with 47% of the vote.[27][28] The election had been called after the results of the regular election were thrown out due to irregularities with absentee ballots in the district's eastern portion. The Republican nominee in that contest,Mark Harris,had defeated Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes,the closest race in the district in decades. Much of the district's share of Mecklenburg County had not been represented by a Democrat since 1953,and the 9th has been in Republican hands without interruption since it was configured as a Charlotte-based district in 1963.
In the September 10 general election,Bishop defeated McCready,50.7% to 48.7%. He won mainly by dominating the more rural areas of the district,as well as Union County,the district's largest whole county. The closeness of the race was remarkable given the 9th's heavy Republican bent on paper;it had a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+8.
In July 2022,Bishop was the only House Republican to vote for an amendment that would have cut the proposed defense budget by $100 billion.[37] On the same day,Bishop was one of 14 Republicans to vote for a separate amendment that would have removed a proposed $37 billion spending increase in the defense budget.[38]
In August 2017,Bishop contributed $500 toward the establishment of the social network Gab,a website criticized for its white supremacist and far-right content.[42] He said he made the contribution in response to what he called a California "tech giants' Big Brother routine",referring to companies such as PayPal and Facebook canceling accounts used by organizers and funders of the Unite the Right rally,in Charlottesville,Virginia.[19] Bishop's crowdfunding contribution attracted attention the next year,after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.[42] He responded that he was being "smeared",saying,"I don't use Gab,but if its management allows its users to promote violence,anti-Semitism,and racism on the platform they have misled investors and they will be gone quickly,and rightfully so."[42] The contribution came up again a week after the 2019 El Paso shooting and a month before Bishop's House election. A group called Stand Up Republic aired criticism of his contribution to Gab as part of a $500,000 advertising campaign. Bishop criticized the advertising,calling it "defamatory".[43]
Bishop was the Republican candidate for the office of attorney general in North Carolina in 2024. Despite Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's statewide victory in North Carolina,Bishop was defeated by Democratic candidate and fellow congressman Jeff Jackson 51% to 49%.[11]
↑Staff (September 6, 2019). "NC-09: Republicans Risk Special Election Loss in Critical 2020 State". The Cook Political Report. Retrieved September 8, 2019. In May, Republican voters chose Bishop, an attorney best known for sponsoring North Carolina's so-called "bathroom bill," as their new nominee.
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