Is Mark Harris trying to get back into NC politics?

Is Mark Harris trying to get back into politics?

On Thursday night, the executive committee of the Mecklenburg Republican Party will hold a meeting to recommend an N.C. Senate replacement for Dan Bishop, who won North Carolina’s 9th District Congressional special election this month. The executive committee’s recommendation will go to Gov. Roy Cooper, who will appoint someone to fill out the rest of Bishop’s N.C. Senate term.

On that Mecklenburg committee is Harris, who withdrew from the disputed 9th District race in February in the face of election fraud allegations swirling around his campaign. Now, Harris may want a path back into the political universe. Former 9th District Rep. Robert Pittenger told the editorial board Wednesday that Harris has expressed an interest in Bishop’s old seat. Pittenger, in an op-ed submitted to the Observer, says Harris should move on.

The editorial board left messages Wednesday with Harris, the Mecklenburg Republican Party and its chairman, Chris Turner. Harris told the Observer’s Jim Morrill on Wednesday that he never thought seriously about running. Harris, who said he was doing work for the Family Research Council and as a temporary pastor in Fayetteville, said he couldn’t afford to be in the General Assembly.

Sources tell the editorial board that the MeckGOP and its executive committee have gone a different direction and that former N.C. Rep. Rob Bryan will likely get the recommendation for Bishop’s seat.

An N.C. Senate seat might have made sense to Harris as a political reentry point, but it’s difficult to imagine that notion benefiting anyone else. While N.C. statute says the governor “shall” abide by the local party’s recommendation, Cooper could have challenged the choice and perhaps stalled the appointment. At the least, Democrats could have made political hay out of it. And rightly so. While Harris insisted he didn’t know the details of McCrae Dowless’s absentee ballot operation in Bladen County before hiring him, Harris had been warned about Dowless several times by his John Harris, his son. For at least the near future, Harris is politically toxic. We’re glad Mecklenburg Republicans appear to realize that. We hope Harris does, as well.

This story was originally published September 25, 2019 at 10:35 AM.