The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●NC-09: Republican Dan Bishop echoes Donald Trump's racism in a new ad that attempts to connect Democrat Dan McCready, his opponent in the Sept. 10 special election in North Carolina's 9th District, to the recent arrest of an undocumented immigrant from Honduras named Luis Pineda-Ancheta.
Campaign ActionBishop begins, "Over in Charlotte, a liberal sheriff is playing politics with illegal immigration," and continues, "Why? To spite President Trump." He then insists that Mecklenburg Sheriff Garry McFadden "released violent criminal illegals back onto our streets," and declares, "Rogue sheriffs should follow the law or resign."
Bishop only mentions his opponent at the end when he says, "Dan McCready won't put country over party. Wrong Dan won't stand up to radicals in this party even when they put us in danger." In case the ad's race-baiting wasn't clear enough, the ad shows a picture of McFadden, who is black, next to a mugshot of Pineda-Ancheta with the word "STRANGULATION" in large type just above it.
Bishop is hoping to capitalize on recent stories involving Pineda-Ancheta that have nothing to do with McCready. Pineda-Ancheta was deported from the United States back in 2006, but he later returned. In May, he was twice arrested on domestic violence charges, and the second arrest resulted in a nine-hour standoff with a police SWAT team. Pineda-Ancheta was released both times after paying his bond, but ICE detained him just after he got out of prison the second time. ICE has argued that McFadden's refusal to cooperate with the agency allowed Pineda-Ancheta to go free when he should have been in their custody.
Bishop has seized on the story and attempted to use it against McCready, even though there's no connection at all between McCready and the people or events described in the ad. In June, Bishop called for McFadden to resign and accused McCready of staying silent. McCready did comment on the story, though, saying it was "sadly just the latest example of how terribly broken our current immigration system is."