Free Republic

After over two years of campaigns and a voided November general election over allegations of ballot fraud, voters in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District will finally choose their next congressman on Tuesday. As the campaign comes to a close, President Trump is front and center in the election: Republican Dan Bishop has explicitly tied himself to the president and cast his opponent, Democrat Dan McCready, as a radical socialist. The president will also be front and center at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Monday, where Mr. Trump will stump for Bishop. A recent TV ad by Bishop's campaign...

The political operative at the center of an election fraud scandal that has engulfed a North Carolina congressional race was arrested Wednesday on charges of illegal ballot handling and conspiracy. Four people working for him were also charged. Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr., 63, was accused of directing workers to collect and mail in other people's absentee ballots during the 2018 Republican congressional primary and the 2016 general election. It is against the law in North Carolina for anyone other than the voter or a close relative to handle a mail-in ballot, a measure aimed at guarding against manipulation. Prosecutors are...

Republican Mark Harris said Tuesday he will not run in the new election for North Carolina’s 9th congressional district, citing his “extremely serious” health condition. It comes just days after the North Carolina State Board of Election unanimously voted for a new election after the district’s House race from 2018 was marred by claims of ballot fraud.

Good Morning. From the White House backtracking on the planned withdrawal of US troops from Syria. "A small peacekeeping force of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time" The direct quote from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.... In Israel three political groupings have come together Telem, Israel Resilience ad Yesh Atid to oppose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party. Their united political movement is dubbed "Blue and White", Cacol Lavan in Hebrew...... In the UK this week a new political group forming.... Tomorrow in France Week 15 of the Yellow Vests protests.... Venezuela closing its...

Republican Mark Harris on Thursday called for a new election in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district, saying that allegations of ballot tampering have shaken the public’s confidence in the race’s outcome. Harris’s request, which came at a hearing of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, was a stunning reversal for the Republican House candidate, who has for months urged state elections officials to certify him as the winner in the race. --This is a developing story.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A key witness testified Monday that she engaged in fraudulent and illegal activity involving absentee ballots in a congressional race in North Carolina as part of a get-out-the vote operation to benefit the Republican congressional candidate in a race that is still unresolved. In frank testimony before the North Carolina State Board of Elections, Lisa Britt said that she was paid to collect absentee ballots in the 2018 election by McCrae Dowless, a political operative hired by consultants for Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris. Britt said some of the ballots she collected were unsealed and uncompleted and...

North Carolina’s elections director said Monday she found evidence of fraud tainting the District 9 House race, the last undecided contest nearly three months after the 2018 midterms. Election Director Kim Strach said her investigation found “a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme” connected to Republican candidate Mark Harris. She said they also discovered that “efforts were made to obstruct this investigation and the testimony provided at this hearing.” Ms. Strach detailed the findings at an evidentiary hearing before a new state Board of Elections, which will decide whether to certify the Nov. 6 results or call for...

RALEIGH The state’s investigation into alleged election fraud by the Mark Harris campaign will continue, a judge ruled Tuesday morning. Harris is the Republican candidate who appeared to narrowly win an election for North Carolina’s 9th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 elections. But the state has not certified his victory, due to an ongoing investigation into alleged fraud related to mail-in absentee ballots. Harris and his legal team had asked Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway to order the state to certify the results of the election despite the investigation, which could then...

House Democrats will refuse to seat North Carolina Republican candidate Mark Harris on Jan. 3 as state election authorities investigate election fraud claims surrounding his race, incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Friday. Hoyer told The Washington Post that Democrats would oppose any effort to seat Harris, who leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes in the state's 9th District.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Thursday that Democrats are closely monitoring fraud allegations in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District but said they would only call for a new election if it’s impossible to determine the winner. “The House Administration Committee will have full investigative authority to determine the winner of the election,” Pelosi said. “And … only if it’s impossible to determine who the winner is, would we take the extraordinary step of calling for a new election.” The midterm results in North Carolina’s 9th District have been embroiled in controversy since a number of voters have emerged...

A top Democrat on Tuesday threatened not to seat the Republican winner in a closely contested North Carolina House race when the new Congress takes power in January, citing allegations of "serious fraudulent activity" involving possible ballot harvesting. State election officials unanimously refused to certify the results of the race on Friday and may call for a new election, potentially erasing what is now unofficially a 905-vote lead by Republican Mark Harris over Democrat Dan McCready in the fight for the 9th Congressional District. The margin is less than half a percentage point of total votes cast. Incoming Majority Leader...

Mounting evidence of voter fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District could indefinitely delay the certification of a winner, as state election officials investigate whether hundreds of absentee ballots were illegally cast or destroyed. The North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement has no plans to certify Republican Mark Harris’s 905-vote victory over Democrat Dan McCready, according to an agenda of a board meeting scheduled for Friday morning. The board is collecting sworn statements from voters in rural Bladen and Robeson counties, near the South Carolina border, who described people coming to their doors and urging them to...

Time are EST You could be in for a long wait to know the results of the midterm elections and which party ends up controlling the House and Senate. But polling places close earlier in some states than others — and they could provide a hint of things to come as the night progresses. 6 p.m. Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District: President Trump won this district near Lexington by 15 points. Democrats are fielding retired Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath against three-term incumbent Andy Barr. The race is rated as a toss-up. A Democratic victory could be an early sign of...

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV Web Staff) - President Donald Trump is coming to Charlotte next week to campaign for Mark Harris. He plans to visit Friday, October 26. Trump visited for whirlwind trip in August to raise money for Republicans Mark Harris of the 9th District and Rep. Ted Budd of the 13th. [ Whirlwind trip to Charlotte puts Trump in the middle of 2 competitive NC races ] Trump is expected to rally at 7 p.m. at Bojangles Coliseum, located at 2700 E. Independence Boulevard. Doors will open at 4 p.m. Those interested can register for tickets here.Both Budd and...

Republican Mark Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by five percentage points for North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, according to a new poll by the New York Times and Sienna College. Harris was favored by 47 percent respondents while McCready was favored by 42 percent. Eleven percent of voters are undecided in the race for the seat, which stretches from Republican areas in south Charlotte and Union County to Fayetteville. The seat is considered one of the Democrats' best opportunities to flip a seat held by the GOP. Harris narrowly defeated Robert Pittenger in the May primary... This is the first...

Six Republican campaign volunteers say they were kicked out of an Uber on Saturday as their driver told them “welcome to the resistance.” The six volunteers were told halfway to their destination in Raleigh, North Carolina, to exit the vehicle at a gas station because the driver “had the right to deny [them] service,” Mary Russell, one of the riders in the Uber, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The six riders exited the car and were told, “Welcome to the resistance,” as the driver drove away. “It was clear based on our mild conservative political talk that the driver...

RALEIGH, NC (WECT) – Greg Brannon and Mark Harris showed improved numbers while Thom Tillis saw his support slip in the final Public Policy Polling survey of the North Carolina Republican Senate primary campaigns. In a PPP poll done April 26-28, Tillis had support from 46 percent of the responders, with Brannon at 20 percent and Harris at 11 percent. In the final poll done over the May 3-4 weekend, Tillis had the support of 40 percent, with Brannon up to 28 percent and Harris at 15 percent. The 40 percent mark would keep Tillis at the level he needs...

Olympia Snowe made her case for a return to governing from the “sensible center,” and she did it with conviction. But while the audience was both loud and supportive at a women’s summit in Charlotte, no one – and that includes the former Republican U.S. senator from Maine — thought it would be easy. Snowe was considered moderate in her approach and her politics when she decided not to run for a fourth term in the Senate in 2012. How bad had it gotten? Republicans and Democrats honored her at separate celebrations, a departure from the past. “It’s not even...

Yep. That’s what he told The Cumberland County Republican Women’s Club on Saturday. Okay, Mr. Big Boy Pants™, then why are YOU running? I disagree with his assertion there. I think there are BIG differences between Tillis and the rest of the field. He’s the only candidate in the field who appears to be using his day job to shake down people for campaign contributions. (It’s illegal to accept campaign contributions to your legislative campaign fund from people with business before the state while the legislature is in session. It’s NOT illegal to accept them for your US Senate race...

North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) leads a crowded Republican field for the right to face Sen. Kay Hagan (D) in November, according to a new survey conducted for a super PAC backing his campaign. Tillis scored 27 percent of the vote, compared with 16 percent for physician Greg Brannon and 10 percent for state Baptist Convention President Mark Harris. A handful of other candidates received only single-digit support.