Mark Harris on Tuesday won the Republican nomination in North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District six years after a ballot-harvesting scandal resulted in an election do-over….
Political operative McCrae Dowless, who worked for Harris in his campaign for NC’s 9th Congressional District in 2018, was awaiting a trial on charges of illegal ballot handling, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in relation to the scandal when he died in 2022. The State Board of Elections voted 5-0 in favor of a new election after Harris dropped his bid and called for a new election, the Associated Press reported in 2019. Bishop won that election re-do.
But in Harris’ candidate announcement last year he took aim at what he called the “manufactured scandal” that ended with the State Board of Elections “not certifying our victory in 2018.”