NC Attorney General candidate Dan Bishop fought to allow discrimination and ban abortion

Rep. Dan Bishop, the Republican nominee for Attorney General of North Carolina, is known for his extreme far-right positions, particularly on social issues. This could draw national attention to a race that usually doesn’t get much notice.

Bishop has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019. He launched his campaign for the state’s open Attorney General seat last year. He will face Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson in the general election.

Prior to joining Congress, Bishop served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 2015 to 2017 and the North Carolina Senate from 2017 to 2019. In 2016, Bishop authored the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, better known as the bathroom bill. The legislation barred transgender people from bathrooms and locker rooms that do not match the gender on their birth certificates.

The Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act spurred national outrage. Musical artists, including Bruce Springsteen, canceled shows in North Carolina to protest the legislation. The Associated Press estimated that boycotts over the law cost North Carolina $3.7 billion. The portions of the law pertaining to bathroom use were ultimately repealed in 2017.

In 2022, when Bishop was running for a second term in Congress, he told a podcast host that he was proud of the bill and compared his support of it to a soldier being killed in combat.

“I think it helped me, I don’t think it hurt me,” Bishop said. “I think there’s a great lesson in that. Have the courage to do what you know is right … Many soldiers have died in service to this country, defending our freedoms. It would not be the worst thing for some politicians to lose their offices because they stood up for freedom.” 

Bishop has taken other anti-LGBTQ positions. According to leaked emails from 2019, Bishop said he was open to allowing certain businesses to refuse service to LGBTQ customers.

Bishop has also taken hardline positions against abortion rights and access to contraception. In 2019, when Bishop was running for congress, he told the Raleigh News & Observer that he supported a proposed near-total abortion ban in Alabama that did not allow exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

 “I think it’s wrong to have an abortion in the case of rape or incest, just as it would be wrong to take the life of a child born to incest,” Bishop said.

Bishop brought these extremist views to the U.S. House of Representatives. In July 2022, Bishop voted against the Right to Contraception Act. In September 2022, he co-sponsored a 15-week federal abortion ban. Neither law was enacted.

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Bishop celebrated the decision and compared Roe v. Wade to the Dredd Scott decision, the overturned Supreme Court ruling that refused to extend American citizenship to people of black African descent.

“Today, the Supreme Court scored the most foundational victory for life in decades … ” Bishop said in a statement. “Now, Roe v. Wade will finally be joining Dredd Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson where it belongs, in the ash heap of history.”

In November, Bishop will appear on the ballot alongside Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina. Robinson has also taken far-right positions on social issues, including endorsing abortion bans and likening gay and transgender people to “filth.”