KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. — North Carolina state House Speaker Tim Moore formally announced his bid for the U.S. House on Tuesday, competing for a south-central district seat redrawn just a few weeks ago by the Republican-dominated General Assembly.
Moore, whose entry into the 2024 race for a reconfigured 14th Congressional District was expected, highlighted in a video his legislative accomplishments in Raleigh and the state's strong economy as evidence that he can make a difference on Capitol Hill.
“I’ve been proud to serve with a conservative Republican majority in the state House for the last nine years as speaker,” Moore says in the video. “And now I’m ready to take that same conservative leadership to Washington, D.C.”
Moore's political consultant acknowledged last week that the Cleveland County Republican had started telling members of the state's congressional delegation and key supporters about his candidacy.
Moore said previously that he would neither seek another term as House speaker nor run for reelection to his state House seat, and that he also was considering a congressional bid.
The legislature enacted a map of all 14 districts that created the new Republican-leaning 14th District that touches six counties, from parts of Charlotte west to the foothills, including Moore's hometown of Kings Mountain.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson, who represents the 14th District, was drawn by legislators into a different district and is running for state attorney general next year instead.
Moore, an attorney, became the state House Rules Committee chairman in 2011 when Republicans took over the chamber and succeeded now-U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis as speaker in 2015. He's been elected to a record five two-year terms as speaker.
Moore stressed the efforts of the Republican majority he's helped lead with cutting personal income taxes, requiring photo identification to vote and restricting abortion further after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“Unlike all of the other candidates you know how I will vote regarding the conservative issues that we each hold dear because that’s how I have been voting,” Moore said in the video.
Candidate filing begins next month for the March 5 primary.
Republican Pat Harrigan, who lost to Jackson in the 2022 general election, is running again in the reconfigured 14th. His campaign had nearly $750,000 on hand entering October.
Harrigan, a former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan, already has started criticizing Moore, saying in a news release last week that he "carries a legacy of corruption."
“Such a man does not represent NC14’s values, nor does he deserve its trust,” Harrigan added.