CHARLOTTE, N.C. – North Carolina’s primary election is March 5. Several big races are on the ticket, including an open seat for attorney general.

What You Need To Know

  • The North Carolina attorney general is tasked with representing state and government agencies, and protecting consumers from fraud and scams

  • Rep. Dan Bishop is the only candidate seeking the Republican party’s nomination for attorney general

  • If elected, Bishop said his top concern is “restoring the rule of law”
  • Primary elections in North Carolina are on March 5

Spectrum News 1 sat down with Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican who is the only candidate seeking his party’s nomination for North Carolina’s attorney general. 

Bishop is no stranger to North Carolina politics.

He began by serving as a Mecklenburg County commissioner almost two decades ago. He ran and won a state House seat in 2014 and then a state Senate seat three years later. He headed to Washington, D.C., in 2019 after narrowly winning a special election in the state’s 8th district.

But he says North Carolina has always been home.

“I was born in Charlotte, the last of five children,” Bishop said. “My dad was a dentist, but my parents grew up – dad from Guilford County, mom from Bladen County, North Carolina – very poor.”

Bishop says his parents instilled a "sense of drive" in him that he still carries today. It led him to graduate top 10 in his class at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Now, he’s trying to do the same with his son, Jack, who’s following in his footsteps as a first-year law student at UNC.

“I’m proud of him. I really am,” Bishop said. “And he’s doing well.”

After five years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Bishop says he’s ready to come back home to the Tar Heel State.

He’s leaning back into his roots a lawyer by running as the Republican nominee in North Carolina’s attorney general race.

The last time a Republican won a race for attorney general was in 1896.

“I’m certain I can win,” Bishop said.

He points to the fact that the last Republican for run for attorney general in 2020 narrowly lost by less than a percentage point.

“It is a seat waiting to be won,” he said.

Throughout his time in Congress, Bishop has raised his national profile as a vocal member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus. He’s also garnered criticism over voting against certifying the 2020 presidential election, and as state representative he was a main sponsor of House Bill 2, also known as “The Bathroom Bill.”

Supporters of Bishop say he’s fighting for conservative values.

“I’ve set out ever since then as I did when I was in the General Assembly, frankly, to be assertive and to stand up for the things that people sent me to Washington, D.C., to pursue,” Bishop said. “And to be reliable to the people who elected me. That’s extraordinarily important to me.”

As attorney general, Bishop says his top issue would be “restoring law and order.”

“Every single day I’m on the job as attorney general I’ll support prosecutors, the [district attorneys] that are trying to keep crime under control in their respective districts around the state,” Bishop said. “And frontline law enforcement officers who others have tried to delegitimize. I’m going to reverse that.”

As Bishop looks to become the state’s next top cop, he says he’ll use his years of experience as a lawyer while embracing the values of North Carolinians.

North Carolina values, he said, "produce in a place that is a pleasant one to live in, where people respect and know the Lord, and where they have the best business climate in the nation,” Bishop said. “Those need to be nourished, reinforced and supported, and I’m the perfect person to do that.”