© 2026 Blue Ridge Public Radio
Blue Ridge Mountains banner background
Your source for information and inspiration in Western North Carolina.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
BPR is hiring! Click here for more information.

Next Steps For Contested 9th District

Mark Harris listens during a public evidentiary hearing on the 9th Congressional District investigation at the North Carolina State Bar in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. (Juli Leonard/via AP, Pool)
Mark Harris listens during a public evidentiary hearing on the 9th Congressional District investigation at the North Carolina State Bar in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. (Juli Leonard/via AP, Pool)
Mark Harris listens during a public evidentiary hearing on the 9th Congressional District investigation at the North Carolina State Bar in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. (Juli Leonard/via AP, Pool)
Credit Juli Leonard/The News & Observer via AP, Pool / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mark Harris listens during a public evidentiary hearing on the 9th Congressional District investigation at the North Carolina State Bar in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. (Juli Leonard/via AP, Pool)

Updated at 4:40 p.m

There will be a new election in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District. The unanimous decision from the North Carolina State Board of Elections comes after four days of dramatic hearings into suspected election fraud.

In question was whether or not suspected ballot tampering tainted the outcome in which Republican Mark Harris appeared to have beaten Democrat Dan McCready by just more than 900 votes. Harris took the stand earlier today, and this afternoon he called for a new election. Host Frank Stasio talks with WUNC Captiol Bureau Chief Jeff Tiberii about the latest.

Frank Stasio talks with WUNC capital bureau reporter Jeff Tiberii about the latest developments on the election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

Published at 12 p.m.:

The State Board of Elections is on day four of its hearings into election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. In question is whether or not ballot tampering tainted the outcome in which Republican Mark Harris beat Democrat Dan McCready by just more than 900 votes. 

Harris’s son John testified yesterday that he warned his father about the suspicious techniques used by McCrae Dowless, the Bladen County political operative hired by Harris to run an absentee ballot campaign. Thursday morning’s testimony was dominated by concerns that Harris’ legal team mishandled subpoenas and withheld documents.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Rusty Jacobs, WUNC politics reporter, about the latest live from Raleigh.Frank Stasio talks with WUNC political reporter Rusty Jacobs about the election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

Next Steps For Contested 9th District

Copyright 2019 North Carolina Public Radio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.