Veterans set to square off in race for NC’s newest congressional seat

CHARLOTTE — A newly-drawn district has two veterans competing to represent the Charlotte area in the U.S. House.

State Senator Jeff Jackson, of Charlotte, is the Democratic nominee for the seat. Pat Harrigan, a firearms manufacturer, will oppose him on the Republican side.

The 14th District includes most of Mecklenburg County and half of Gaston County.

In the 2020 election, Democrats were favored by voters in the precincts that will make up the district. President Joe Biden won by 16%, Gov. Roy Cooper won by 19% and the race for lieutenant governor favored Yvone Lewis Holley, the Democratic candidate, by 11%.

Jackson said he’s focused on doing the work that needs to be done in Washington D.C.

“It sounds simple. But we don’t see a ton of it in Congress, which is why it’s so dysfunctional up there, why the reputation of that institution is not great, and why its outcomes usually aren’t very great,” Jackson told Channel 9′s Joe Bruno. “Not a whole lot of people, I would say not enough people, are there to do the work.”

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Harrigan said his first priority is to fix the economy and get inflation down.

“That is hammering the American family and it is hammering the middle class, it’s destroying it,” Harrigan said. “And if we don’t fix that, we are going to have a whole lot of problems moving forward over the next generation.”

Last week, the race took a twist when Jackson filed a challenge against Harrigan’s residency in the district.

In a four-page letter, Jackson contends Harrigan lies in a 5,000-square-foot lakefront home in Catawba County, not the SouthPark apartment he has been voting from and listing as an address.

Harrigan said the challenge won’t hold up.

“Look, this is performative politics at its best,” he said. “Jeff Jackson is a PR stunt man, and always has been since he entered the state, the state senate. I live in this district, I’ve got a place in SouthPark.”

>>> Watch The Political Beat’s Joe Bruno interview Jackson and Harrigan about their priorities for the 14th District in the video at the top of this page.

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