2/26/19
Republican Mark Harris said Tuesday that he will not run in the new election for North Carolina's contested 9th District, citing health reasons. “Given my health situation, the need to regain full strength and the timing of this surgery the last week of March, I have decided not to file in the new election for Congressional District 9,” he said in a statement. Harris instead endorsed Union County Commissioner Stony Rushing. Harris initially led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes in the House race last year. But state election officials refused to certify him as the winner of the race after allegations of ballot tampering in rural Bladen and Robeson Counties emerged. Those allegations touched off a months-long investigation that culminated last week in a North Carolina State Board of Elections hearing, during which state officials and witnesses painted a picture of a sweeping ballot-tampering operation led by Leslie McCrae Dowless, a long-time political operative working for Harris’s campaign.
But the ballot-tampering allegations combined with Harris’s acknowledgement of a recent illness left it unclear whether he would once again seek his party’s nomination. In a statement on Tuesday, Robin Hayes, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, said the state GOP supported Harris’s decision to withdraw from the race. “There are numerous quality candidates that are discussing a run and although the Party will not be involved in a primary, we have no doubt that a competitive nominee will emerge,” Hayes said.
