RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Next week marks the start of a new round of elections in the nations last unresolved congressional race after Novembers results were thrown out because of concerns about ballot tampering and state officials called for a do-over.
North Carolina elections board officials set May 14 for a primary election with the general election to follow on Sept. 10.
The new election resulted after testimony that a political operative working for Republican candidate Mark Harris in rural Bladen County collected mail-in ballots, making votes vulnerable to being changed or discarded.
Harris said he wont run again. Dan McCready, the Democrat who appeared to be the loser Novembers election, has said he will try again to win in a district that has been in GOP hands since 1963. Donald Trump won it by 12 percentage points in 2016.
For right now he would definitely have to be looked at as the front-runner, Catawba College political science professor Michael Bitzer said.
Harris departure means opportunity for other Republicans. Harris said hes backing Stony Rushing, a Union County commissioner. State Sen. Dan Bishop is also believed to be sizing up the landscape. He is the architect and sponsor of the North Carolina law restricting LGBT rights that led to a boycott against North Carolina. Former state senator Tommy Tucker also is considering a bid.
Activists from both parties expect lots of campaign money will flow into the off-year race as it gets heightened national attention. The district includes part of Charlotte and stretches through several rural counties along the South Carolina line. Its location close to Fort Bragg is expected to make McCready, an Iraq War veteran, an attractive candidate.
The operative whom Harris hired ahead of his 2018 Republican primary, Leslie McCrae Dowless, was charged last week with seven low-level felonies, including ballot possession and obstruction of justice. The charges are connected to Dowless work for Harris in the 2018 Republican primary; to work for 9th District congressional candidate Todd Johnson in the 2016 primary; and to other work Dowless did in the 2016 general election.
