(Adds quote from Harris and more background)
By Letitia Stein
Feb 26 (Reuters) – North Carolina Republican Mark Harris said on Tuesday that he will not run again for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after a new election was ordered due to concerns of corruption in the 2018 vote.
In an email, Harris cited health concerns as his reason not to seek the seat. He led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes in the Nov. 6 election, but state officials refused to certify him as the winner because of allegations of irregularities in the vote.
RELATED: Voters head to the polls for the 2018 Midterm Elections
North Carolina’s bipartisan elections board unanimously ordered a new vote last week in the state’s 9th Congressional District after hearing evidence that an operative for Harris’ campaign had orchestrated a ballot fraud scheme.
The move came after Harris, who spent months trying to fend off a rerun, called for a new election and acknowledged that the public had lost confidence in last year’s result.
“I also owe it to the citizens of the Ninth District to have someone at full strength during the new campaign,” Harris said in the email.
A date has not yet been set for the new election in the country’s last unsettled 2018 congressional contest. The outcome will not change the balance of power in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. (Reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
