The Republican candidate whose questionable victory in a congressional election in North Carolina was thrown out amid fraud accusations announced today he will not take part in a new race.
Mark Harris, 52, led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes in November’s election for the US House of Representatives seat from North Carolina’s 9th congressional district.
Allegations quickly emerged, however, of electoral fraud by a man hired by Harris’s campaign and the five-member state board of elections unanimously called last week for a new vote.
Harris, citing health concerns, said he would not take part in the special election, whose date has not yet been set.
‘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.
During a hearing last week before the state elections board, Harris said he has recently suffered two mild strokes.
In dramatic testimony at the hearing, Harris’s own son, federal prosecutor John Harris, testified that he had warned his father about hiring the operative accused of ballot tampering.
McCready, a Marine Corps veteran, has said he plans to run again in the special election.
Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives in November’s midterm vote, dealing a major blow to Republican President Trump’s ability to push his legislative agenda through Congress.
The contest in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district is the last undecided House race of 2018.
North Carolina criminal investigators are seeking phone and bank records as they dig into the ballot fraud allegations.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said Tuesday the search warrants and what agents collected remain sealed from the public.
Court clerks records show the State Bureau of Investigation collected financial records for an unidentified suspect in December and sought phone records last month.
Judges both times agreed the name of the suspect and details of the Bladen County case should be kept secret.