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Tonight Updated: March 28, 2021 @ 2:58 am
How the WVGOP picked ousted veterans hospital chief as its top leader By
Gov. Jim Justice
Gov. Jim Justice met Dr. Mark Harris for the first time Friday.
The governor came out of a meeting with a decision to back Harris as the new chairman of West Virginia’s most powerful political party and only later found out that Harris had been ousted at a West Virginia veterans hospital when a doctor he supervised was accused of the sexual abuse of dozens of veterans seeking healthcare.
Abraham indicated not enough was known about Harris’s role at the hospital during those events to consider it disqualifying.
For The Intelligencer
Mark Harris of Raleigh County accepts congratulations after being voted the new West Virginia Republican Party chairman.
CHARLESTON West Virginia Republican Party leaders selected Raleigh County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Mark Harris to lead the Grand Old Party as Republicans begin 2021 on the upswing but not before having their own election issues.
Members of the West Virginia Republican Executive Committee met Saturday afternoon at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center to select a new chair.
Nominations were made for Harris, a healthcare executive and a minister at Memorial Baptist Church in Beckley, and former state party chairman Conrad Lucas.
sadams@newsandsentinel.com
Mark Harris receives congratulatory handshakes Saturday upon his election as the new chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party that met in Charleston. Also in the running was former chairman Conrad Lucas. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)
CHARLESTON West Virginia Republican Party leaders selected Raleigh County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Mark Harris to lead the Grand Old Party as Republicans begin 2021 on the upswing but not before having their own election issues.
Members of the West Virginia Republican Executive Committee met Saturday afternoon at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center to select a new chair.
Nominations were made for Harris, a healthcare executive and a minister at Memorial Baptist Church in Beckley, and former state party chairman Conrad Lucas. Harris said he was excited to lead the state party into the 2022 and 2024 elections.
Ousted VA hospital chief of staff selected WVa GOP chairman
March 14, 2021
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) An ousted chief of staff at a Veterans Affairs hospital has been selected as the chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party.
Members of the state Republican Executive Committee chose Raleigh County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Mark Harris on Saturday in Charleston, The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register reported.
Harris was selected over Conrad Lucas, a former state GOP chairman. Harris replaces Melody Potter, who resigned in January, citing the health of her parents.
Harris was chief of staff at the Beckley VA Medical Center from 2017 to 2019. He was dismissed after an investigation into sexual assault charges against a former doctor. Jonathan Yates was sentenced in January to 25 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges that he molested three male patients and violated their civil rights.