Congressional candidate Mark Harris stopped in Anson on his early voting tour last week.
Harris visited the Anson County Board of Elections office with his wife, Beth, on May 31, though it was a quiet day at the office with few people around before an evening meeting. He began the tour in Cumberland County that morning and finished in Anson late that afternoon, stopping at other early voting locations along the way.
Harris, pastor of First Baptist Church in Charlotte, hopes that he is on the path to Washington and on his way to defeating incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-Charlotte.
The pastor-turned-hopeful politician first became interested in politics when he was 14 and his parents had him help President Ronald Reagan’s campaign in 1980, stuffing envelopes and setting out signs to help the cause. In 1981, he attended Reagan’s inauguration.
As he grew older, he decided to become a lawyer, but said he changed his mind when God called him to ministry instead.
Throughout his 28-year ministry, Harris said he continued to have a “serious concern” regarding public policy.
“I think that the Bible offers answers each and every day to life as we know it, and I think that for far too long Christians have sat on the sidelines,” he said. “I’ve been engaged throughout my life to some degree, but I’d say a turning point was in late 2011 or early 2012.”
Just before Harris was made president of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention in late 2011, the state approved the placement of a referendum for Amendment One, supporting the definition of marriage, on the ballot. Harris worked with a group to form Vote for Marriage NC to try to get the amendment passed.
“It was during that time that God really opened my eyes to really the vacuum of leadership we have in our country, and that there are a lot of people across North Carolina that held to the same values, held to the same principles, that I held to, that honestly didn’t feel like their voice was being heard,” Harris said.
In 2013, Harris began to consider challenging Senator Kay Hagan for her seat. He unsuccessfully ran for senate in 2014.
He didn’t anticipate running for congress just two years later.
“I really didn’t see this race coming at all,” Harris said. “It was something that was not really on my radar, and then in February of this year, when the legislature redrew the district, there were several things that became apparent to me. One was that the district looked and was made up of a very different makeup than it had been previously.
“What had been one of the wealthiest districts in the state — all of Iredell, for the most part all of Mecklenburg and that western end of Union that included Lake Norman — suddenly, all of Iredell was gone, the lake was gone, most of Mecklenburg was gone,” he continued. “Only 50 precincts on the east side of the south were part of this, and now it was all of Union, all of Anson, all of Scotland and all down the line, Robeson, part of Bladen and part of Cumberland.”
That district change caught his interest.
“To be honest, it was so very different,” he said. “It had gone from a metropolitan-centered district, like Charlotte, to being a much more rural and suburban district. And my 30 years as a pastor has managed to minister to people in suburban, rural and metropolitan areas, and I genuinely felt like just my life journey of caring for people, just ministering to people, was something that I could represent this new 9th District.”
Harris was also inspired by Pittenger when the pastor grew disappointed with the congressman’s choices while in office.
“I strongly disagreed with two votes,” Harris said. “He voted to raise the debt ceiling not once, but twice. He voted for the omnibus budget bill that included funding for Planned Parenthood, and I disagreed with that, both of them. I felt like he had given in to the special interests. I felt like he had given in to the leadership, if you will, of the House, more so than what was best for America.”
Harris was also concerned with the FBI investigation into Pittenger’s former real estate company, Pittenger Land Investments. The FBI and IRS are investigating whether the congressman erred in moving money from his company to his campaign.
“I think a lot of folks had the fear that if he got through the primary without a strong challenge that had the name I.D. and could raise the money to compete, that, Heaven forbid, if in July or August he were indicted, we would take what should be a Republican district and just hand it to a Democrat,” Harris said. “And I think there was some genuine concern about that.”
Harris said that Pittenger’s campaign has sent out inaccurate “attack” material to voters that claim that Harris is against the military, with fliers reading, “When our troops needed funding — Mark Harris said no.”
Harris said he is not opposed to funding the military, but didn’t think that Congress should have approved the budget, which included funding for the defense budget, if it meant also approving funding for Planned Parenthood. The issues should have been separate and not approved together, Harris said.
If elected, Harris has a list of priorities that includes defunding Planned Parenthood, lowering the national debt and building up the military.
Harris also criticized opposition to House Bill 2, known as “the bathroom bill.” The law requires individuals to use restrooms that correspond with their biological sex rather than their chosen gender and keeps local governments from creating their own policies about gender and sexual discrimination.
Despite the backlash over the law — which includes companies such as PayPal cancelling planned expansions in North Carolina — Harris was unconcerned with the economic affects of the it, saying that the state and district should build on its values.
“The only thing that HB 2 did was basically state now in law what we’ve always believed,” Harris said. “They made a statement for the first time in the law that you cannot be discriminated in North Carolina based on the traditional list — sex, creed, everything that’s in the federal law. They just didn’t include sexual orientation and gender identity. As I say, nor does the federal law. North Carolina did nothing, our legislature did nothing, other than what has historically been North Carolina’s position. So my question to the companies and the corporations that are raising their red flag over this is, North Carolina was a great place to do business in January 2016 — what’s changed in June or May of 2016? Absolutely nothing. What Charlotte tried to do that would’ve changed it has been deemed null and void by HB 2, and HB 2 has not been changed or reversed at this point.”
On Monday, Harris’ campaign criticized Pittenger, accusing him of making “false claims” about endorsements from Gov. Mike Huckabee and presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Harris’ team sent what it claimed was a voice message from Huckabee, paid for by Harris’ campaign, to the media on Monday.
“The integrity of the election tomorrow is on the line,” Huckbee said in the message. “Congressman Robert Pittenger today falsely counted an endorsement from Donald Trump. He’s even claimed my endorsement.”
Huckabee said he supports Harris and that Trump did not support any of the candidates.
Pittenger’s press team cited a tweet made by @TeamTrumpNC showing a photo of Pittenger and Trump together with a message saying, “Shout out to #NC9- We need to send strongest unity candidates to support Trump in DC. That candidate is Robert Pittenger. Vote on June 7.”
The tweet was not posted by Trump’s verified Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, though Pittenger addressed the verified account rather than @TeamTrumpNC in his Twitter response.
“Thanks @realDonaldTrump! Let’s take our country back and #MakeAmericaGreatAgain! #NC09.”
Pittenger has represented the 9th district since 2013. Opponent Todd Johnson is a former Union County commissioner and the president of an insurance company that has an office in Anson County.
Election Day results were available Tuesday night after press deadline. Results from the race will be posted on www.ansonrecord.com and covered in next week’s issue of The Anson Record.
Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.
