- We're joined by Representative Mark Harris, the Republican from the US 8th Congressional District in North Carolina.

Representative, good to have you on for this interview and thanks for your time.

- It is great to be with you.

Thank you so much for taking the time to have us.

- Well, thank you for your time and putting us in your schedule.

You know these districts are growing in North Carolina.

What were your top 10 state now with population so even in just in the two years of your first term, there's probably thousands of people have moved into your district.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your leadership style and not only what made you run for office, but what makes you think the job isn't finished from your perspective?

- Well, listen, I come from a background having been born and raised in Winston-Salem, NC and so I'm a Tar Heel born and Tar Heel bred.

And when I die, as they say, I'll probably be a Tar Heel dead at that point.

But I'm I'm Tar Heel through and through.

In fact, my wife's from Hendersonville, NC.

We met at Appalachian State University so I've been educated in this state.

I answered the call to ministry and went to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary down in Wake Forest, NC, and graduated from there with a Masters of Divinity and also a Doctor of Ministry degree.

And so for 38 years I've had the privilege of serving as a pastor and preaching and leading congregations, not only primarily here in North Carolina.

There was about 5 1/2 years in there that I actually went to Augusta, GA and served a church down there.

But as a pastor and leader, I've served as president of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention.

It just became increasingly an awareness that came to my heart that there was a real need for leadership in government and for folks to be willing to step out of whatever it is that they do, whether they be a businessman or whether they be a pastor or whether they be a teacher, whether they be a physician or a lawyer or whatever it is they do that they willing to step into the arena and be willing to serve and that became very clear to me probably in late 2012 and 2013 when I was serving as president of the Baptist State Convention, North Carolina.

I'd gotten involved in leadership in some issues that were happening here in our state and that really opened my eyes to to a need that was there a gap that that needed to be filled and one of the things that was really heavy on my heart.

During that time was what kind of leaders we had leaders that were willing to stand up and that were marked by character that were marked by consistency and were marked by courage and that really has not left me to this day since that time.

We've watched our family grow and expand.

We have three children that are grown and all married and and have beautiful families.

They blessed us with 11 grandchildren that Beth and I have Beth.

There is she is a school teacher.

She teaches 8th grade American history at Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail, NC and so we're just very, very blessed to have the opportunity to serve and recognize that there was a need for for leaders that were willing to step into the arena.

Now it's been two years since I've had the privilege of stepping into that arena and being elected by the people in the 8th District of North Carolina and we have.

Really, really tried to go and fulfill the things that we said we were going to do, but the job is not finished.

There are things to do.

I tell folks all the time politics 101 and I majored in political science by the way at Appalachian State and politics 101.

I've come to realize is number one.

You tell the people when your campaign and what you're going to do.

Number two, you go to Washington.

If you're blessed to be elected and do what you said you were going to do, and then number three, you come back and you tell them what you've done and I was just looking at a piece of paper the other day that was left over from our '24 campaign and the things that we told them little things that were handed out at the polls we told folks we were going to secure the border.

We told folks that we were going to support working families.

We promised people that we were going to support law enforcement and seek to make our community safe.

And we said that we were going to support a pro-life agenda and do all we could to preserve life and to build upon the foundations that have have been put in place.

So those were things we said we were going to do.

I feel like we've done them when you look at the working families tax cut that we work so diligently, better known as the one big, beautiful bill last year.

There was so much packed into that and that was something we got accomplished that that really took care of a number of these things, including securing the border and supporting our law enforcement.

That was part of that, and so we're doing what we said we need to do and there is still so much that needs to be done.

We gotta help President Trump finish this this second term and the last two years to finish well.

- I hadn't thought about this question, but in some races, Republicans aren't necessarily running towards President Trump.

Right now he's got the classic case of a second term president.

You say stick with President Trump and the agenda.

Why is it a good call for you and a good call for your district?

- Well, I think it's a good call because, quite frankly, it's the right thing to do.

The very issues that I just laid out that that I ran for in '24 are issues that still are so important to the American people we're still dealing with the the downside of what happens when you open up your southern border as a Biden administration did.

And bring 20 million illegal aliens in many of them criminals that came from countries where their dictators or leaders just threw open the jails and sent them up and many of us remember the videos from '23 and '24 and seeing a large mass of people trying to migrate just to come across our southern border.

We're still feeling that economic effects, even of that from the last administration.

So though we've secured the border, and I'm very thankful to say there hasn't been one illegal alien that has been released into the country.

In the last 16 months, we still have so much to do in that area and we're going to continue to do it.

So I think it's the right thing to do.

And in my district that honestly, I think represents the people and what the people of the 8th district want to see happen.

- Well, let's look ahead the next two years.

What's on the platform, what are voters telling you they want to see done going forward?

- Well, I think there's no question.

Everybody believes that we've got to make sure that we wrap up this conflict that's going on in the Middle East right now.

Look, the president has described it as a detour that we weren't necessarily looking to do, but it was a detour that had to be taken in order to assure that Iran was not going to have a nuclear weapon.

I mean, that's just I mean, that's it.

Period.

They're not going to have a nuclear weapon full stop, and I think that's important.

And President Trump recognized the reality, the intelligence and everything that had come very clear to people that they were literally within a couple of weeks of being able to have as many as 10 to 12 nuclear weapons, and he wasn't going to let that happen.

So we had to get engaged in that.

And so as a result of it, many of the economic principles that we were able to put in place through the working families tax cut or one big beautiful bill.

We see a lot of things that are continuing to move forward.

We saw a great jobs report that just came out this morning.

As a matter of fact, it beat all of the the analyst guesses of what they thought was going to happen in the forecast, so I think the principles that we've got to build upon those.

And I think the American people, they still want to feel the effects of this economy.

A good economy.

We what has happened in the Middle East.

Obviously we're dealing with these gas prices and when the cost of fuel goes up, everything suffers.

That's the reason we're seeing prices at the grocery store higher 'cause transportation affects everything we do.

And so I'm hearing from a number of business leaders.

I mean weekly I'm hearing from them.

Mark, make sure the president understands we've got to get this cost of fuel down and I'm telling them.

Believe me, he understands it.

I think diesel just hit a record high just in the last day or so, so it's something we've got to do.

I think we're also looking at things from the farming community that's very important.

We passed the farm bill out of the house.

It's still sitting over there in the Senate and we're waiting on them to take action on it and so I'm hopeful that just maybe they're going to.

Come back in the Senate as we head into the fall and they're going to pass the farm bill or at a minimum.

It's going to go to a conference committee and we're going to be able to get something out of there that really is desperately needed by our farmers and so we're wanting to see that happen.

And so there's a number of issues.

The beef issue is something that we're dealing with right now as well and the beef prices have been high.

The president is taking some steps that many of us are concerned about.

Not sure they're the greatest steps that we needed to take in trying to bring in foreign beef, but I do believe he's trying to get grocery prices down, including beef, but I think we've got to make sure that we do something for our ranchers and we've got to allow them to rebuild their herds 'cause that's that's really at the root of the problem is we've got to have time to rebuild our herds and we certainly don't need to put added pressure on our ranchers and cattle producers to the point that they just throw their hands up and walk away.

We don't want to see that happen.

Listen, food security is national security and people in my district want to make sure we're taking care of the farmer in the process as well.

So some of those are things that we need to continue to do.

There's no question people are concerned about the national debt.

We just crossed the 40 trillion point.

I'm very concerned about that.

That was one of the reasons I went to Washington.

I've got 11 grandchildren as I already mentioned and we've got to get serious.

About our spending and what's that going to take?

Well, if we're real honest about it, it's going to take getting serious about how we're going to deal with mandatory spending very little of the budget anymore is discretionary spending.

The overwhelming majority is mandatory spending that has gotten out of control.

We're now spending trillion dollars of dollars on interest, just interest, and we've got to get that under control, and it's going to take serious people that are willing to sit down at the table across the aisle and have serious conversations about how we're going to be able to rein in spending.

We don't have a revenue problem.

I'm convinced we have a spending problem.

- Go back to affordability and tariffs.

What's the role in the in the US economy?

'Cause for three decades tariffs were a bad word and it did seem like in the '70s and '80s.

It was partisan, but but Republicans weren't pro tariffs necessarily, but now it seems that rhetoric may have flip flopped or at least it's become a campaign topic.

What do you think of tariffs in general and then tariffs in specific industries?

- Well, listen, you you raise a great question there.

I'm a conservative, and conservatives primarily we believe in free trade and I still believe in free trade, but I must say that I think all of us had our eyes open when President Trump began to lay out the agenda.

And pointing to the fact that we better make sure we have fair trade at first before we're really going to be able to get to free trade.

Because the United States of America had been taken advantage of over the generations and I mean generations now, and he has been the first president to seriously look at the trade issue.

We were in a meeting earlier this week.

With with Jameson Greer, and he was talking about many of the trade deals that they have been working on.

There's a lot to be done, and I think President Trump has shined the light on just where the problems have been and and really using the economic power and the economic engine that is the United States of America.

To be able to sit down with these countries and say look if you're going to work with us, we want to work with you, but it's going to be a level playing field and that's what President Trump is set out to do.

I know it's been painful.

I know some industries have been hurt, but again, it's one of those necessary things that that has had to take place in order to get us back to a level playing field in the trade markets.

- With so many people are watching, will watch this regardless of your district in the 8th.

Lot of voters interested there, but across North Carolina, America.

The one question I have to ask, maybe the easiest is how do folks learn more about Representative Mark Harris and Mark Harris for Congress campaign?

- Well, if they want to learn about our campaign, just go to MarkHarrisforcongress.org just straight across MarkHarrisforcongress.org.

No breaks and they can.

They can go and find us there if they want to find us from our official website.

They can go to MarkHarris.house.gov and there I would encourage him to sign up for our newsletter.

We send a weekly newsletter out, but it's one of those things where you can't just drop a whole bunch of names of lists into that house.

That official website.

Every individual has to actually make the decision to go and sign up, so I encourage folks go to that MarkHarris.house.gov and be able to look at where they can be a part of our weekly newsletter that we mail out and sign up for that and they'll get updates on what we're doing.

I have the privilege of serving on the Education and Workforce Committee, which has been fascinating with some of the priorities we've had.

I'm able to serve on the Agriculture Committee which again, the Farm Bill we've been overdue in getting a farm bill out.

That's been exciting and I have the privilege of serving on Judiciary Committee and very honored to serve with Chairman Jim Jordan and the work that we're doing on judiciary.

So there's a lot that we cover every week in the newsletter about what's happening and I invite everybody to go there and learn more about it.

- Representative Mark Harris, 8th US Congressional District in North Carolina safe travels out there by the way.

Thank you for your time and for this interview.

- Thank you.

Always a pleasure to be with you.

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