Former District 9 congressional candidate Dan McCready says his loss in the special election earlier this year could show how Democrats can win back the White House in 2020. 

Conservative Republican Dan Bishop won a special election for an open House seat in North Carolina, averting a demoralizing Democratic capture of a district the GOP has held for nearly six decades.

Republican State Senator Dan Bishop is the unofficial winner of the election for the N.C. 9th Congressional District seat.

Republicans are hoping an eleventh-hour pep talk from President Donald Trump will propel them to a special election victory Tuesday in a GOP-friendly House district in North Carolina, a race that could illuminate their chances of retaking the House majority and Trump's own reelection prospects in 2020.

In the North Carolina county where a congressional election was scrapped last year after suspected ballot tampering, voters say the county's history of underhanded politics makes them wonder whether fairness will continue beyond next week's special election.

The two main candidates in the country's only congressional district still without a representative after last year's elections meet for what could be their only debate.

Early in-person voting is starting for two special congressional elections in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Democrat in a special U.S. House election forced by a ballot-collection scandal reports raising $1.74 million in the three months ending in June.

The general special election for NC 9 is set to happen on September 10th with early voting beginning in late August.