Live results: Early returns show Jackson leading Bishop in NC attorney general’s race
Polls have closed and results in North Carolina's extremely competitive and high-profile race for attorney general are starting to come in.
Two of North Carolina's most prominent members of Congress, Democrat Jeff Jackson and Republican Dan Bishop, are vying for the attorney general's office, one of the most powerful and influential elected offices in state government.
Early returns, with fewer than 10% of precincts across the state reporting, showed Jackson leading Bishop as of 8:20 p.m.
Most expensive attorney general race
The attorney general's race was already one of the most closely watched on the ballot this year, but it received even more attention after the governor's race was upended by a scandal involving racist, sexually graphic, and antisemitic online comments allegedly made by GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson, who already trailed in the polls, and in fundraising.
As Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein cemented a substantial polling lead over Robinson for governor, additional resources have poured into what both attorney general campaigns expect to be, by contrast, a much closer contest.
Jackson, the first-term TikTok-savvy congressman, raised a total of $15.4 million as of mid-October, while Bishop, a prominent member of the House Freedom Caucus who has been in Congress since 2019, raised nearly $9 million. Spending by allied groups was expected to bring overall ad spending in the race closer to parity .
The two campaigns and the political action committees supporting them expected to spend at least $31 million on both TV and online ads through Election Day, the Associated Press reported last week, citing data from the firm AdImpact, which tracks political ad spending.
That sum is believed to make this year's attorney general race the most expensive in U.S. history, according to both campaigns. The 2020 race, by comparison, saw Democrats vastly outspending Republicans, roughly $12 million to $2 million, according to AdImpact.
Jackson and Bishop's election night watch parties
Bishop supporters started sitting down at Hilltop Fish Fare & Steakhouse in Monroe around 7 p.m.
The Republican is holding his election night party there, but the restaurant has long been a place where voters come to watch results roll in.
Charlie Brown, a near 40-year resident of Charlotte, said he met Bishop when the congressman ran for that office and knocked on his door. The two got into a long conversation and lined up ideologically.
"The whole 'woke agenda' is something I'm very much against," he said.
He noted that the state's last Republican attorney general, Zeb V. Walser, was elected in the 1896. But now is the perfect time for a conservative in the office, he said.
"You see so much on the news about: Dan Bishop's against this, Dan Bishop's against that," said Betty Tallardy, who's involved in local GOP politics. "He's a very Christian man. He's a very big family man. He believes in the Constitution."
And Bishop is like a next-door neighbor, she said. He'll sit down and chat casually, sharing his mind without reservation, she said.
"There are very few people today who can be true all the way down and through," she said.
Jackson, meanwhile, is spending election night with other Democratic candidates at the N.C. Democratic Party's party at the Marriott City Center in downtown Raleigh.
GOP hasn't won an AG race in NC in 128 years
The GOP hasn't won an attorney general race in North Carolina in 128 years, but managed to come close in the two most recent contests, which were decided by razor-thin margins.
Stein defeated Republican Buck Newton to win his first term in office in 2016 by 24,613 votes, or 0.54%. In 2020, Stein won reelection while running against Republican Jim O'Neill by an even closer margin of just 13,622 votes, or 0.26%.
As the state's top law enforcement official, the attorney general leads the N.C. Department of Justice and represents the state in all legal matters.
The attorney general can also intervene in court proceedings at both the state and federal level, and handles criminal appeals from state trial courts.
Jackson has identified combating the fentanyl crisis as his top priority if elected, while Bishop has said he will prioritize helping law enforcement across the state "restore law and order."
