Yesterday, I wrote about the news that broke this week about Democrat Dan McCready’s quiet refunding in late March of a $2,000 donation he received from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5) in November.

McCready is the Democratic candidate in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, the only remaining House race from 2018 that has not yet been decided. A new primary will be held in May and a special election will be held in September after absentee ballot fraud was discovered that benefited the original Republican candidate in the race – Mark Harris.

Harris, who denied knowing anything about the absentee ballot fraud, will not run for the seat again.

McCready took to the Twitter machine last night to explain his decision to refund Omar’s donation. First by asserting that he believed some of her remarks had indeed been anti-Semitical:

Some folks are asking why I directed the return of Rep. Omar’s donation. I did this weeks ago because I vigorously disagree with any anti-semitic comments. Since this time, dangerous and hateful attacks have started against her… (thread) — Dan McCready for NC (@McCreadyForNC) April 18, 2019

… and then condemning any “hateful rhetoric” that she says has been directed towards her in recent weeks:

I condemn in the strongest terms the hateful rhetoric against her, the Muslim community and people of color. Too many have been hurt by our broken politics. We must end hate speech against all people and groups. — Dan McCready for NC (@McCreadyForNC) April 18, 2019

The thread was seriously ratio’d, with the vast majority of the nearly 1000 responses it has received as of this writing criticizing his decision:

Some called McCready, who is a Marine Corps veteran who fought in the post-9/11 Iraq war, a “coward” for his stance.

In addition to AOC’s Justice Dems BFF Waleed Shahid weighing in yesterday to express his disappointment with McCready, one prominent officer from the North Carolina Democratic Party shared her disgust in two tweets:

This is the same Democratic candidate that supports the funding of ICE pic.twitter.com/7i4O7R2kRu — Nida Allam (@NidaAllam) April 18, 2019

Nida Allam is the party’s 3rd Vice Chair. No one else from the official state party has given a public statement on the issue (and I doubt our left-leaning political media here has even bothered to ask).

It remains to be seen if this issue hurts McCready’s campaign over the next several months. Even if the vast majority of the criticism he’s gotten is from people outside of the 9th District, some of those critics could influence others to not donate to his campaign, or press for refunds of their own donations to it.

Democrats really want this seat, especially after what was discovered in the aftermath of the November election. It’s been a reliably Republican seat for decades, but Democrats like their odds this time around.

We shall see.

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— Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. —