Rev. Mark Harris, a Republican, who was accused of election fraud in his 2018 House race, has won the GOP primary in North Carolina’s 8th congressional district.
Harris managed to squeeze out a victory, with 30.4% of votes cast which is just above the 30% threshold to avoid a runoff.
Harris previously ran for the House in 2018 in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district. He won by fewer than 1000 votes.
However, the state’s election board did not certify the results and ordered a do-over election amid allegations that McCrae Dowless, a political operative who worked for Harris’ campaign, ran an illegal “ballot harvesting” operation.
Dowless was charged with several counts of obstructing justice and possession of absentee ballots, but he died last year before his case went to trial.
No charges were filed against Harris and he decided not to run in the do-over election in 2019 which was won by Republican Dan Bishop by less than 2 percentage points.
Harris will face Democrat Justin Dues in November. But the 8th district is so heavily Republican that Harris is virtually assured to win the general election. The winner of the election will replace Bishop who ran for state attorney general.