Freedom Caucus chair faces backlash over N.C. elector scheme

• He is also fueling concerns from Democrats about Republican plans to challenge a victory for Vice President Harris on Nov. 5.

Driving the news: Harris, who was tapped to lead the Freedom Caucus last month, made the comments at a local Republican Party dinner in Talbot County, Maryland, on Thursday.

• Harris said it "makes a lot of sense" for North Carolina's legislature to convene a joint session to award its 16 Electoral College votes before ballots are counted, according to a clip tweeted by pro-Trump operative Ivan Raiklin.
• Harris pointed to disproportionately pro-Trump counties in the Western portion of the state recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
• "You, statistically, can go and say, 'Hey, look, you got disenfranchised in 25 counties, you know what that vote probably would have been,' which would be, if I was in the legislature, enough to go, 'Yeah, we've got to convene the legislature, we can't disenfranchise the voters,'" said Harris.

What they're saying: "Extreme Republican leaders are openly advocating that North Carolina's Electoral votes be given to Donald Trump without an election," said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee.

• "This blood-chilling scheme, suggested by the Chair of the so-called House Freedom Caucus, is anti-American," he added.
• Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) told reporters at the Capitol on Friday that he has "not heard anything related to that," adding, "It makes no sense whatsoever to prejudge the election outcome ... bless his heart."
• Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) cited Harris' comments unprompted in an interview with Axios on Friday, exclaiming, "That's insane. That's crazy."

Zoom out: Harris' comments touch on a legal theory that has caught fire with Republicans in the years since Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election that state legislators are the ultimate arbiters of the Electoral College.

• Raiklin himself has been a high-profile proponent of that theory, urging state GOP leaders to toss out a Kamala Harris win.
• The argument has been particularly prevalent in North Carolina, which, despite its status as a key swing state in this year's presidential election, is governed by a Republican legislative supermajority.
• But the theory was dealt a blow last June when the Supreme Court rejected North Carolina legislators' attempt to seize total control over election rules.

Zoom in: McHenry and other North Carolina lawmakers also pushed back on Harris' suggestion that voters whose communities were in the path of the storm should be considered "disenfranchised" — or that state legislators unilaterally choosing the winner is the appropriate remedy.

• "Bless his heart. If he pulled his head out of his ass long enough to talk with elected leaders in North Carolina, he'd realize that he's just flat out wrong about access to the ballot in North Carolina," Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.) told Axios.

• "We're seeing a member of Congress struggle with basic civics ... I strongly recommend a Civics 101 class for him and wish him well on his journey to figuring out how any of this works," said Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-N.C.).
• Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.) called Harris' comments "appalling," adding, "This would be a disgraceful violation of every North Carolinian's right to vote and would set a dangerous precedent for elections to come."

The other side: "As I've repeatedly said, every legal vote should be counted," Harris said in a statement.

• "I would hope everyone could agree that legal American voters whose lives were devastated by the recent storms should not be disenfranchised in the upcoming voting process," he said.

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) told Axios: "I haven't spoken to Andy so I don't know the full context of what he said."

• "What I do know is we should be spending every waking moment getting North Carolinians out to vote so we can elect Donald Trump and grow our House majority. Let's win at the ballot box," he added.

Between the lines: The state's election board earlier this month approved emergency measures allowing election boards in more than a dozen counties hit by Helene to modify voting procedures to make it easier to vote.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with a statement from National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson.