Republican Mark Harris (C), seen here with President Donald Trump, will not run in a new election after his congressional election victory was thrown out amid fraud accusations (Sean Rayford)

Washington (AFP) – The Republican candidate whose apparent victory in a congressional election in North Carolina was thrown out amid fraud accusations announced Tuesday he will not take part in a new race.

Mark Harris, 52, led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes in November’s election for the US House of Representatives seat from North Carolina’s 9th congressional district.

Allegations quickly emerged, however, of electoral fraud by a man hired by Harris’s campaign and the five-member state board of elections unanimously called last week for a new vote. 

Harris, citing health concerns, said he would not take part in the special election, whose date has not yet been set.

“Given my health situation, the need to regain full strength and the timing of this surgery the last week of March, I have decided not to file in the new election for Congressional District 9,” he said in a statement.

Harris said he hoped a new Republican candidate for the special election would be “a solid conservative leader” who will be able to “articulate the critical issues that face our nation.”

During a hearing last week before the state elections board, Harris said he has recently suffered two mild strokes.

In dramatic testimony at the hearing, Harris’s own son, federal prosecutor John Harris, testified that he had warned his father about hiring the operative accused of ballot tampering.

McCready, a Marine Corps veteran, has said he plans to run again in the special election.

Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives in November’s midterm vote, dealing a major blow to Republican President Donald Trump’s ability to push his legislative agenda through Congress.

The contest in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district is the last undecided House race.

Cases of outright electoral fraud are rare in the United States, despite Trump’s claims following the 2016 presidential election that “millions” of people had voted illegally.

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