The family of North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Pat Harrigan was targeted in a shooting at the home of Harrigan’s parents last month, but nobody was injured, reports said.
Harrigan’s children were staying with their grandparents in Hickory when the shooting occurred, the AP reported.
Republican’s family targeted in the shooting
The bullet came flying from a wooded area and pierced the window of a laundry room that was just below a bedroom where Harrigan’s two kids were sleeping, Harrigan’s mother Marla said.
There have been no arrests made yet. Marla Harrigan said the children have been relocated “out of an abundance of caution after the shooting.”
“It’s just disconcerting, especially with the children there,” she said. “This campaign is so stressful, and we feel so badly for our son because, you know, he’s terribly stressed about his children … and now they’re gone, they’re not with their parents and it’s just very, very disruptive.”‘
Pat Harrigan, a firearms manufacturer and former Green Beret, is running to represent North Carolina’s 14th District in western Charlotte against Democratic state Sen. Jeff Jackson. The shooting, which happened the night of October 18, was first reported by the Carolina Journal.
In an open letter to his opponent last month, Harrigan said he wears a bulletproof vest on the campaign trail and blamed Jackson, saying he had endangered Harrigan’s family by filming an attack ad in front of a lakefront home that Harrigan owns in Hickory.
Opponent pulls attack ad
Following news of the shooting, Jackson pulled the incendiary ad and said that the home in the ad is not the same one that was targeted in the shooting, although Harrigan’s parents’ home is also located in Hickory.
“We at Team Jackson pulled our ad in an abundance of caution and concern, but to be clear, the home involved in the incident has never been featured in any of our advertising,” Jackson’s campaign said.
Harrigan said he would not be intimidated by the shooting.
“A bullet & death threats aren’t enough to knock this Green Beret off that mission,” he said.
News of the shooting comes after Paul Pelosi was attacked in a break-in in San Francisco last week. Democrats have invoked the incident to paint Republicans as violent extremists. New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc was nearly assaulted before a debate Wednesday.