RALEIGH — State Rep. John Bradford (R-Mecklenburg) offered surprise news this morning during candidate filing at the N.C. State Fairgrounds by announcing he would not be running for state treasurer as he originally planned.
Instead, Bradford told North State Journal he was filing for the 8th Congressional District seat.
Breaking: Rep. John Bradford is not filing for NC treasurer. He just stepped into filing at the fairgrounds for Congress in the 8th district.#ncpol
— A.P. Dillon (@APDillon_) December 8, 2023
“Well, this will be surprising news,” Bradford told North State Journal. “So, I was planning on running for treasurer. But in the last few days, I’ve had more calls about running for United States Congress than I’ve had for running for treasurer since I started running for treasurer.”
“So I am actually filing for United States Congress for the 8th District,” said Bradford. “I live in Mecklenburg County and the district includes part of Mecklenburg County and I do a significant amount of business throughout the 8th District.”
Bradford served four years in the North Carolina House from 2016 to 2018 before losing in the 2018 election to Democrat Christy Clark. He ran again in 2020 and won. He retained the seat again in 2022.
I’m really excited – It feels really right and, frankly, Washington is broken,” Bradford said. “And I think they need people from the North Carolina General Assembly to do some of the things we’ve done here in Washington and I’m excited to go give it a shot.”
Bradford also served on the Cornelius Town Council for three years.
“I’ve been doing this well over a decade and my reputation in the House is I’m known for getting things done.,” said Bradford. “I’m a business-friendly guy. I’ve helped lead our state’s efforts to lower taxes.”
While in the General Assembly, Bradford noted he as served as senior chairman of the Finance Committee and said “our state’s tax policy has my fingerprints all over it,” and that those are the types of experiences he wants to take to Washington, D.C.
Per a press release, Bradford will be loaning his campaign $2 million.
The Republican primary for the seat will be a contest among many aspirants. Also in the race are Charlotte pastor and former Congressional candidate Mark Harris, prominent Concord real estate agent Leigh Brown, Union County Commissioner Allan Baucom and Charlotte attorney Don Brown.
