The chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus says the North Carolina legislature should consider allocating the state’s presidential electors to Donald Trump even before votes are counted in the swing state.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said Thursday that such a step by North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature “makes a lot of sense” given the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in the western part of the state. Counties in that region are expected to vote heavily for Trump.
Potential difficulties with voting in the hurricane-damaged area would be a basis for the state legislature to declare in advance that Trump should win the state’s 16 electoral votes, Harris said at a Republican Party dinner in Maryland’s Talbot County.
“You statistically can go and say, ‘Look, you got disenfranchised in 25 counties. You know what that vote probably would have been,’” Harris said during an exchange with a speaker at the dinner. “Which would be — if I were in the legislature — enough to go, ‘Yeah we have to convene the legislature. We can’t disenfranchise the voters.’”
Harris’ comments were in response to a keynote speech by Ivan Raiklin, a pro-Trump activist who has long embraced a radical strategy of state legislatures guaranteeing Trump’s reelection if they deem the 2024 election tainted by fraud and corruption. Raiklin posted a video of his full speech on X as well as a separate clip of his exchange with Harris….
House Democrats also quickly sounded the alarm over Harris’ comments.
“Extreme Republican leaders are openly advocating that North Carolina’s electoral votes be given to Donald Trump without an election,” said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which oversees election policies. “For the first time in North Carolina’s history, voters could be denied their right to choose the president. This blood-chilling scheme, suggested by the chair of the so-called House Freedom Caucus, is anti-American.”
Raiklin became a figure of interest to the House Jan. 6 select committee and special counsel Jack Smith for his December 2020 tweet dubbed “Operation Pence Card.” In the tweet, which Trump retweeted at the time, Raiklin laid out a strategy in which then-Vice President Mike Pence could ensure Trump reclaimed the White House. Raiklin has not been accused of wrongdoing and has become a regular at Republican events as well as hearings on Capitol Hill and the nearby federal courthouse….