House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sworn in two Republicans who won special elections in North Carolina last week.

One is conservative Dan Bishop. As a state legislator, he wrote North Carolina’s 2016 law restricting which public bathrooms transgender people may use. It was later repealed.

Bishop won a district that stretches eastward from Charlotte by 2 percentage points. Donald Trump carried the district by 11 points in the 2016 presidential election.

Bishop did poorly among suburban voters but well with rural residents. That continued a trend that could wound the GOP as it tries retaining the White House and strengthening their numbers in Congress in 2020.

Also sworn in was Republican Greg Murphy. The physician and state legislator was easily elected in a strongly GOP coastal district.

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