Last week, former GOP Congressional candidate and possible election fraudster Mark Harris announced he wouldn’t run in the special election set for the seat he once tried to claim. He cited ill-health as the reason for taking a pass but the real reason was bad judgment. He hired McCrae Dowless after seeing clearly questionable tactics from the shady operative and then tried to claim nobody ever warned him about Dowless. His son’s testimony made him out to be liar.
Now, we have more evidence that Harris really lacks the judgment to be in Congress. In announcing he wasn’t running for Congress, Harris endorsed Union County Commissioner Stony Rushing. Rushing seems to fashion himself a Boss Hogg character, appearing in photos wearing an all-white suit and hat and smoking a big cigar. Now, it turns out that Rushing has more baggage than a Pullman car.
According to a story in Popular Information, a newsletter written by Judd Legume, Rushing is an adultery who filed suit against another Republican with whom he had an affair. Actually, he filed the suit on behalf his daughter who is a minor, requesting that his former lover stay away from her and refrain from saying mean things about her on social media. Rushing claimed that his lover was jealous of his daughter. When pushed to provide evidence that his paramour was harassing his daughter, Rushing couldn’t do it. After Rushing embarrassed himself in court, the judge threw out his lawsuit.
Harris endorsed Rushing because the Union County Commissioner is a “strong social conservative.” It seems today’s evangelicals can’t figure out their sexual mores. They are serial adulterer Donald Trump’s staunches backers. They were just about the only people to support Alabama US Senate candidate Roy Moore after his attraction to teenage girls came to light. And Paige Patterson, the former president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, who was fired from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas for covering up sexual abuse cases, still teaches an ethics course through South Evangelical Seminary, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. So much for Republican family values.
The whole episode shows how misguided the GOP has become. Harris was clearly a flawed candidate and man who cared more about going to Congress than he did about the integrity of our electoral process. The Republican leadership fell in line behind him, demanding he be certified despite blatant evidence that he either covered up voter fraud or participated in it. Now, Harris backing an elected Republican with clear ethical problems. Maybe this episode will embarrass Rushing enough to drop out. I doubt it, though. Not much can embarrass a party that has no shame.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
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