Politics

North Carolina Democratic Congressional Candidate Dan McCready Has A Huawei Problem

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Democratic congressional candidate Dan McCready faces scrutiny over his investments in a solar power company that outsourced production to China and worked with Huawei.

China has a big hold on the world’s solar panel industry, but the company’s connection to Huawei may cause more concern, according to a Fox News story Tuesday. McCready, who is the Democratic nominee for North Carolina’s 9th District, has touted his background as a solar investor in campaign ads. A narrator says McCready “helped create hundreds of jobs that can’t be outsourced” in a September 2018 video.

“The politicians have been trying to turn back the clock on energy,” McCready said in 2018 according to Business North Carolina. “It started with bad trade policy in both the Obama and Bush administrations that allowed China to clobber American solar-panel makers. We can do better than that with forward-looking policies.”

McCready co-founded solar energy fund Double Time Capital, which invested heavily in Strata Solar, a North Carolina-based company.

What stands out more is that Strata Solar has been working with Huawei since 2016, including buying parts called string inverters. President Donald Trump signed an executive order May 15 to ban technology that could compromise national security — a move many believed was aimed at Huawei. Before that, a bipartisan group of senators urged Trump to crack down on Huwaei “due to concerns with the company’s links to China’s intelligence services” in a February letter.

Details about Strata Solar’s Huawei connection come as McCready tries to find a middle ground on many issues and flip the district, which is holding a special election Sept. 10.

“A good thing is we do have a president who takes extremely seriously the disadvantage that American companies and workers have been put through,” he once told a newspaper according to Fox News.

McCready’s Republican rival Dan Bishop was ready to pounce with criticism.

“I think we’re starting to understand why Dan McCready refuses to take a position on most issues – on the rare occasion that he tries, Wrong Dan gets caught double talking like he did on China. He should be ashamed of himself,” Bishop campaign spokesman Ray Martin told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email Tuesday.

Bishop, a state senator, beat out a wide field of candidates to secure the GOP nomination on May 14. North Carolina’s Board of Elections decided neither McCready nor former Republican nominee Mark Harris gained victory in the 2018 midterm election after allegations that Harris campaign operatives illegally harvested ballots.

McCready’s campaign and Strata Solar did not immediately respond to TheDCNF’s requests for comment.

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