the business. david, i m going to start with you. it s a tight race. what is standing out to you right now? well, one thing you were just talking with john king that the president may claim some credit here if the republican holds on. john was showing you that cumberland county, where fayetteville is and how that was basically a tie. it had been a democratic lead all night. what is really intriguing there is remember, mccready was on the ballot in 2018. he won cumberland county by four points in 2018. now it s a dead heat. well, where was the president last night? he was in fayetteville. he was in cumberland county. he will see that as evidence that the last-minute drive into the district and to rally the troops could make a difference with that election day vote today. hmm. dana, you ve been hearing some republicans call the ninth congressional district a swing district. i mean how worried 1963, a swing district? how worried are they tonight? well, they were worried. they re n
economy, like the fiscal approach of this president, but don t like the twitter version of this president, don t like the culture war version of this president. you saw in this district that dan bishop, he kind of ran a culture war campaign. he, himself, said it was all about donald trump. a lot of ads that were running were very negative in terms of dan mccready and you saw of course the president go in there and essentially say that dan mccready was going to be a rubber stamp for the left, which he called anti-american. so that s the race that he ran, dan bishop, and might win as a result in this swing district. but some worrying signs, of course, for republicans among those key bloc of suburban white, college educated voters, who do seem to be fraying and running away from this president. we ll see what happens tonight in this race. david, you mentioned it.
see ya. that was a rhetorical question. see you later. i ll be watching tonight. see you. bye. see you later. take it easy. this is cnn tonight. i m don lemon. here s our breaking news. the votes are being counted right now. i m talking about this north carolina special congressional election that could have huge implications across this country. we re going to tell you why. this is why. because what happens in the state tonight, it could be a precursor it could tell us a lot about what might happen in the 2020 race. the republican s name is dan bishop. and then the democrat, another dan, dan mccready, locked in a tight race. it s in a district that president trump won handily in 2016. but it s close now between the democrat and the republican. a district that has been solidly republican since get this 1963. straight to it now. cnn s john king at the magic wall with the very latest. even though the president is not on the ballot, make no mistake.
breathe a sigh of relief until this is actually called. but it s looking like they re going to win. but it s looking like they are. what david just said about those areas where the president helped, it s not just republicans who are saying that. it s actually i ve been communicating with a democratic strategist who s very involved in this, saying that it was very likely that it was the president s visit, the president s effort that popped up the numbers of his base, you know, republican voters and potentially put the republican there over the edge if it ends up as tight as it looks right now. we ll see if that s the case. mm-hmm. so, look, on the one hand you could say, well, for a republican president to go into a district that he won by almost 12 points in 2016, that no republican has won in the congressional level since 1963, okay, so what? but we would have been having a
changing even in the next election when the president is at the top of the ticket. nia, this was trump plus 12, this district. bishop is currently up by about two points. how many more districts does that mean are potentially in play across the country? well, listen, i think it certainly means that if you re republican and dana alluded to this, you re worried. if you re one of those republicans thinking in some ways you might have a chance to take back the house 2020, that doesn t seem so likely at this point. it also, i think, goes to show that running so closely with donald trump in these districts seems to be effective at this point. dan bishop wrapped himself in the mantle of donald trump, literally said this is about donald trump. donald trump had robocalls to folks in that district, and of course was there on monday with junior, with pence. everyone was there. the congressional committee poured millions of dollars into