Twelve days before Brad Knott faced Kelly Daughtry in a North Carolina congressional runoff election, he began receiving congratulatory messages.

The first came from Daughtry: “Brad Knott will be the Republican nominee on May 14th. I extend my congratulations to him and wish him well.”

Then came congratulations from Jason Simmons, chairman of the state Republican Party.

Finally the messages on social media began.

It’s one of those moments that, if this were a television show, you would hear the record scratch, see the video freeze on Knott’s face and hear the narrator say, “Yep, that’s me. You may have wondered how I got here.”

Because somehow, despite coming in second place in the Republican primary and forcing Daughtry into a runoff election, he is being declared a winner.

But congratulations are a bit premature.

Though he secured the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, making Daughtry feel as though she has no path forward and is better off quitting her campaign, he isn’t officially the winner.

And his campaign staff seems painfully aware of that, because they continued to post on social media asking for volunteers to fan out over the 13th Congressional District, knock on doors and ask voters to cast their ballots for him.

Daughtry remains on the ballot. And by the time she left the race, 3,100 votes were cast in the district and voters have continued going to the polls.

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