Composite 4.82 / 10, weighted per the Constitutional Weight Schedule.
Below the 700 bar, Author's Verdict: not supported.
Lands in the Unfit band at credit 525, below the 700 support line, Author's Verdict: not supported. (See section 7 for the full reasoning.)
No military service record on file. Mark Harris is a former Baptist pastor (Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Charlotte) and former president of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. Recorded for context only; not scored.
The 14 measures
Each measure is scored 0–10 against an anchored example, with a cited source. Hover/expand why? for the reasoning.
| # | Measure | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| M01 | Duty to Constitution & Rule of Law | 4 | why?The dominant integrity concern is the 2018 NC-9 absentee-ballot scandal: the campaign retained operative McCrae Dowless, whose crew illegally collected and tampered with absentee ballots, leading the bipartisan State Board of Elections to unanimously void a result Harris led. Per the evidentiary rule this is a weighed APPEARANCE-concern, not a finding, Harris was never criminally charged and the DA (Lorrin Freeman) cited insufficient evidence in 2020. Weighed heavily against him is sworn testimony from his own son, John Harris, that he warned his father repeatedly that Dowless was likely crossing legal lines, warnings the campaign overrode. This is NOT criterion-8 process subversion (no certified election overturned, no fake-electors, no Texas v. PA amicus, Harris was not in Congress in 2020). A serious appearance-and-judgment drag on honesty/integrity, held at low-middle rather than the floor because the central allegation was uncharged and unproven. [source] |
| M02 | Party Over Country | 5 | why?Freshman record (sworn Jan 2025) with no established bipartisan-index baseline yet; Freedom Caucus member with a strongly factional voting posture and no documented signature cross-aisle work. Insufficient evidence of institution-over-faction conduct to score above the midline; not penalized below it for partisan alignment alone, which is policy/ideology and out of scope. [source] |
| M03 | Persons of Equal Worth | 5 | why?No documented pattern of casting opponents or citizens as people who do not belong; no documented high-mark defense of an opponent's personhood either. As a Baptist pastor and freshman his public posture is partisan-conventional. Honest midline absent affirmative evidence in either direction. [source] |
| M04 | Weaponization of Justice | 5 | why?No documented weaponization of state power against rivals while in office. No criterion-class conduct. The 2018 election-fraud appearance-concern is scored under M01 as honesty/judgment, not here as state-power abuse, because it predates his federal office and involved no exercise of official authority. Neutral. [source] |
| M05 | Incitement / Anti-Belonging | 5 | why?No documented sustained incitement or enemy-making rhetoric pattern; no documented high-mark rhetorical restraint anchor either. Conventional partisan messaging, which is not scored. Honest midline. [source] |
| M06 | Fiduciary Conduct | 4 | why?Fiduciary/appearance-of-impropriety: the 2018 campaign's retention of and payments to Dowless created the most serious campaign-integrity appearance-concern in any record measured, even though Harris was uncharged. Distinct from M01 (which weighs his honesty/judgment), this measures the appearance and stewardship breach in how the campaign was run. Held above the floor only because the central allegation against Harris personally was never proven and he was cleared of criminal liability; no documented affirmative self-accountability offsets it. [source] |
| M07 | Duty to Call Out | 5 | why?No documented instance of calling out his own side at personal cost (the active-duty standard), and no documented failure to do so on a matter that demanded it. Thin freshman record; honest midline. [source] |
| M08 | The Discretion Test | 5 | why?No documented discretion-test event, no instance of refusing a preferential advantage at cost, and none of abusing discretion for private gain in office. Neutral on an undeveloped record. [source] |
| M09 | The No-Camera Test | 5 | why?No documented private-versus-public contempt gap on record. Insufficient evidence to move off the midline in either direction. [source] |
| M10 | Constituent-vs-Donor Vote | 5 | why?Perfect attendance (0 of 517 roll-call votes missed through April 2026) shows diligence in the basic duty of showing up. Offset by an undeveloped representational record and no documented constituent-service distinction. Net midline. [source] |
| M11 | Net-Worth Trajectory | 6 | why?No documented office-attributable enrichment, no self-dealing, family-payment, office-information-trade, or foreign-government-revenue findings since taking office Jan 2025. The 2018 campaign-finance concerns involved campaign operations and are weighed under M01/M06, not as personal office-driven enrichment. Scored on the office-enrichment standard only; mild discount for a still-thin disclosure record. [source] |
| M12 | Floor Decorum | 5 | why?No documented sustained institutional-decorum distinction and no documented institutional-disrespect pattern in his first term. Honest midline. [source] |
| M13 | Lying & Misleading | 4 | why?Truthfulness drag tied to the 2018 matter: Harris testified Dowless assured him repeatedly he would not illegally collect ballots, while his son testified he had warned his father that Dowless was likely breaking the law, leaving an unresolved candor question about how much Harris knew and represented publicly. Weighed as an appearance-concern, not a proven falsehood (uncharged, and he ultimately supported a new election). No separate sustained documented-falsehood pattern in office. Low-middle. [source] |
| M14 | Knowledge Depth | 5 | why?Has introduced substantive legislation (e.g., the Equal Treatment for Farmers Act) but no documented record of deep subject-matter command versus messaging bills yet. Neutral on a freshman record. [source] |
Why not higher, the points withheld
The standard is the seat; the ceiling is a perfect 10. Every withheld point traces to documented conduct, weighed where the measures and attributes say it belongs, shown openly here, the same way the earned points are.
| Where | Documented conduct | Mitigation weighed |
|---|---|---|
| M01 | 2018 NC-9 campaign retained operative McCrae Dowless, whose crew illegally collected and tampered with absentee ballots; the bipartisan State Board unanimously voided the result Harris led ↳ honesty/integrity, campaign-fraud appearance-concern | Uncharged; DA cited insufficient evidence (2020); central allegation against Harris personally never proven |
| M06 | Campaign payments to and retention of Dowless created a severe campaign-integrity appearance-of-impropriety ↳ Fiduciary appearance-of-impropriety | Cleared of criminal liability; no exercise of federal office involved |
| M13 | Sworn testimony conflict: Harris said Dowless assured him no illegal collection; his son testified he warned his father Dowless was likely breaking the law ↳ candor/truthfulness appearance-concern | Uncharged; not a proven falsehood; Harris ultimately supported a new election |
| M02 | Freedom Caucus freshman with no established bipartisan baseline or documented signature cross-aisle work ↳ institution-over-faction, insufficient evidence | Not penalized for partisan alignment alone (out of scope); thin first-term record |
The Four Pillars, worthy to be followed?
A separate axis from the 14 measures. The measures ask did their conduct meet the standard; the Pillars ask is this someone worthy to be elevated and followed at all. The two can diverge, when they do, the divergence is the finding.
| # | Pillar | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Trust & Loyalty
| 5 | why?Attributes weighed: Loyalty, Steadiness, Selfless Service. Perfect roll-call attendance shows reliable presence in the basic duty. Held at the midline by an undeveloped first-term record and the unresolved shadow of the 2018 campaign over the trust attribute. |
| II | Aspiration & Integrity
| 4 | why?Attributes: Authenticity, Self-Reflection, Teachability. The 2018 ballot-fraud scandal, uncharged but with his own son's warnings on the record, is a real drag toward the opposite of Self-Reflection, with no documented affirmative ownership. Below the midline; weighed as appearance-concern, not proven breach. |
| III | Protection & Influence
| 5 | why?Attributes: Protection, Stewardship, Accountability. No documented abuse of official power and no documented affirmative use of power to protect the vulnerable. Midline on a thin record. |
| IV | Legacy & Virtue
| 4 | why?Attributes: Integrity, Justice, Love of Truth. The defining public chapter so far is a voided election tied to ballot fraud he was cleared of but never fully accounted for; that tempers the legacy attribute below the midline pending an in-office record. |
| TOTAL: Weak | 18/40 |
Total 18/40. The pillars sit at or below the midline: a thin, clean in-office record offset by the unresolved 2018 campaign-integrity shadow, all weighed as appearance-concern rather than proven breach.
What the Four Pillars are & the questions behind each →
In their own words
“I never had any reason to believe McCrae Dowless was doing anything illegal.”
NC State Board of Elections evidentiary hearing on the voided NC-9 election · PBS NewsHour coverage of State Board hearing · CONTESTED · cite
“I believe a new election should be called.”
Harris's statement at the close of the State Board hearing, after his son's testimony · PBS NewsHour coverage of State Board hearing · ACCOUNTABILITY · cite
Full personnel file
1. Identity
Mark Everette Harris (born 1966). U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 8th congressional district since January 3, 2025; member of the House Freedom Caucus. Former Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Charlotte and former president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Previously the Republican nominee in the 2018 NC-9 race, whose apparent victory the bipartisan State Board of Elections voided over absentee-ballot fraud; Harris did not run in the ordered 2019 do-over.
2. Voting / Legislative Profile
Freshman in the 119th Congress (2025-2026). Perfect roll-call attendance through April 2026 (0 of 517 missed). Sponsored measures include the Equal Treatment for Farmers Act (H.R.8374) and co-led the Free Speech Fairness Act; a backer of the SAVE Act on voter-ID/citizenship requirements. No Lugar/McCourt Bipartisan Index baseline yet given his short tenure. Policy content is noted but NOT scored, only conduct and character against the oath are graded.
3. Constitutional Moments
No criterion-class constitutional moment on record. Harris took office in January 2025 and therefore could not and did not sign the December 2020 Texas v. Pennsylvania amicus and was not present for the January 6, 2021 certification. The salient pre-office episode is the 2018 NC-9 absentee-ballot fraud that led the bipartisan State Board to void the election, weighed under M01/M06/M13 as an appearance-concern, not as a process-subversion flag, because no certified election was overturned and no official power was exercised.
4. Rhetoric & Discourse Profile
No documented sustained enemy-making or incitement pattern, and no documented high-mark rhetorical restraint anchor. Public messaging to date is conventional partisan and pastoral in register, which is not scored. The contested rhetoric on record is the 2019 testimony about Dowless, weighed for candor under M13 rather than as incitement.
5. Fiduciary Profile
No documented office-attributable enrichment since taking office in 2025, no self-dealing, family payments, office-information trades, or foreign-government revenue on record. The fiduciary concern is campaign-integrity, not personal enrichment: the 2018 campaign's payments to and retention of McCrae Dowless, whose ballot-harvesting operation voided the election. Harris was uncharged (DA cited insufficient evidence in 2020); weighed as a serious appearance-of-impropriety, not a finding.
6. Severity-Class Conduct
No documented Severity-class conduct under any of the eight criteria. Harris was seated in January 2025 and could not have signed the Texas v. Pennsylvania amicus; no fake-electors, election-overturn, or sustained incitement conduct is on record. The 2018 ballot-fraud scandal is grave but is weighed as an uncharged appearance-concern affecting honesty/integrity measures, not as a capping criterion-8 or criterion-10 flag. Flag count: zero.
7. What The Framework Says
Mark Harris presents a hard case the standard handles by rule, not by instinct. His defining public chapter is the 2018 NC-9 election that a bipartisan board voided over absentee-ballot fraud, with his own son testifying he had warned his father about the operative. The evidentiary rule controls: Harris was never charged, the DA found insufficient evidence, and the central allegation against him personally was never proven, so it is weighed as a heavy appearance-and-judgment concern across M01, M06, and M13 rather than as a finding or a capping flag. His in-office record is short and clean, perfect attendance, no documented abuse of power, no office enrichment, but too thin to carry him upward. The composite lands below the line: an honest middle weighed down by an unresolved integrity shadow, not a partisan verdict.
8. Sources & Where To Look Deeper
Tier 1 (primary): Congress.gov member profile · FEC candidate overview
Tier 2: PBS NewsHour, NC State Board hearing coverage · ABC11, Bladen County DA decision
Research links: Congress.gov member profile · Ballotpedia · GovTrack · FEC candidate overview · Wikipedia
Scores derive from the fixed Constitutional Weight Schedule. The bar does not move. Conduct, not party.