Mark Harris announces House bid after election fraud controversy

Republican Mark Harris announced on Tuesday that he will run for Congress in North Carolina, five years after Harris’ campaign was the subject of fraud allegations.

Harris is running for the state's 8th District, which is expected to be an open seat with incumbent GOP Rep. Dan Bishop running for state attorney general next year.

When Harris ran for the House in 2018, he initially led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes after the votes were tallied. But the election board declined to certify the results and ordered a do-over election the following year amid accusations that McCrae Dowless, an operative hired by Harris’ campaign consultants, organized an illegal scheme to collect and mark absentee ballots.

Dowless was later indicted and faced three felony counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballots — but died last year, before the case went to trial.

Harris, who was not charged criminally in the case, later announced in 2019 that he would not run in the do-over election, which Bishop, then a state senator, won narrowly.

In an announcement video released Tuesday, Harris echoed former President Donald Trump's false claims about the last presidential election.

“[In] 2020, Democrats stole the election from Donald Trump. The year before, they did it to me,” Harris said in an announcement video. “Well, in 2024, President Trump is making a comeback, and so am I.”

The exact contours of the district Harris is seeking are unknown, since North Carolina's GOP-controlled state legislature is expected to redraw the congressional district lines before next year's elections. But it is expected to be a solidly Republican seat based in the suburbs and exurbs east of Charlotte.

“As living expenses soar, our southern border remains compromised, and the weight of Bidenomics presses on our families, I'm rising to the challenge to champion the hardworking people of North Carolina, who've had enough of DC bureaucrats adding hurdles to their daily lives,” Harris said on Twitter.