NC GOP House Speaker Tim Moore’s adviser confirms he’ll run for Congress
It’s official: North Carolina Republican House Speaker Tim Moore will run for Congress.
Moore has said several times in the past few weeks that he is getting ready to make a final decision on announcing a run, and the legislature he helps run finalized electoral maps last week that give him a favorable district. On Thursday evening, a close adviser confirmed the timing to The News & Observer.
The National Review reported that Moore told other Republicans this week about his plans to run.
“I can confirm that he has started making calls to members of the delegation as well as key supporters letting them know he plans to make a formal announcement next week,” said Paul Shumaker, a political adviser to Moore and a longtime Republican consultant to others, including U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and former Sen. Richard Burr.
“I wanted you to know I am running for US Congress,” said one text to a donor, obtained by McClatchy. “I am trying to raise money to kick the campaign off.”
Moore has said previously that he won’t run for another House term in 2024, but will finish out his current term, including as speaker.
He seemed to be lining up Republican talking points ahead of his run, with a visit to Texas at the border with Mexico, and announcing he’s endorsing former President Donald Trump in recent weeks.
Moore, a Kings Mountain attorney, was the subject of a lawsuit this summer over the breakup of a marriage. Moore, who is divorced, was sued under the state’s alienation of affection law over what he described as an “on again, off again” affair with Jamie Liles Lassiter while she was married to local Republican elected official Scott Lassiter. Scott Lassiter is running in a newly drawn southern Wake County state Senate seat.
Moore’s counterpart in the Senate, Republican Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, said in October he’ll run for another term in 2024 to his Senate seat representing Rockingham County. Berger and Moore have led the Republican-controlled legislature together for more than a decade.
Moore considered a run for Congress in 2022 but stopped short of announcing after then-incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn switched districts. Cawthorn later switched back, and then was ousted in the GOP primary by now U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards. Edwards’ Western North Carolina congressional district remains similar in the new maps, and a new one currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson of Charlotte was redrawn, apparently for Moore to run. Jackson is running for attorney general.
