Steve Bannon is coming to North Carolina. He’s announced that he will jump into the Republican primary in the 9^th Congressional District. Bannon will lend his toxic white nationalist politics to the campaign of Mark Harris in his run against Republican incumbent Robert Pittenger.

Pittenger’s big mistake, it seems, was having Karl Rove come to Charlotte for a fundraiser. Rove has long criticized Bannon and now Bannon will get his revenge by wrapping Pittenger around Rove as the establishment candidate. Pittenger denies the charge, saying he’s been a solid supporter of Donald Trump.

For Bannon, though, Pittenger is just a symbol. To him, the primary is a proxy war with the Republican establishment and Pittenger is their representative. He’ll back the challenger, Harris, in an attempt to shift Congress toward his nationalist worldview. Watch for a bloody intramural fight to play out next spring.

Harris seems to be embracing the support. The former minister of Charlotte’s First Baptist Church barely lost to Pittenger in the newly redrawn district in 2016 and came in third in a primary against Thom Tillis for US Senate in 2014. He probably needs to win this year to keep his political ambitions alive.

Harris is a hard core social conservative who is a bad fit for much of the district. He’s built his political career taking stands against LGBT and abortion rights. In a general election, he might get traction in the rural third of the district, but he’ll struggle in Charlotte and its suburbs where voters care more about making money than who is sleeping with whom. He’s exactly the type of political leader that would give companies like Amazon pause as they consider Charlotte as a place to locate.

Harris is about to get used. Bannon doesn’t care too much about him or Pittenger. He cares about taking down the Republican establishment and building a constituency of his own. In North Carolina, much of that establishment is based in Charlotte. Think Thom Tillis and Pat McCrory. If Harris wins the primary, he’ll need the country club set to embrace tribalism, something they didn’t do in 2016 when they helped oust incumbent Republican Governor Pat McCrory.

For Harris to win the general election, those buttoned-down voters will need to decide they prefer Bannon’s worldview to the more moderate one of likely Democratic nominee Dan McCready. McCready, comes from the world of finance and business that drives the Charlotte economy. He’ll be talking about creating jobs while Harris has branded himself as the voice of morality. A McCready-Harris matchup will give voters a clear choice.

Bannon weighing into the 9^th District race will keep the spotlight on North Carolina. We’ll see a major skirmish in the Republican civil war since the GOP establishment will almost certainly try to counter Bannon’s influence. Expect the national political reporters to follow the race closely and expect to learn more about Mark Harris and Robert Pittenger than you ever wanted to know.

Thomas Mills

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 >