Top Trump health aide will run for Rep. Ron Wright's seat to 'keep Trump movement alive'

Mar. 1—The former chief of staff of the Health and Human Services department under Donald Trump announced his run for the U.S. House seat of the late Rep. Ron Wright (R-Texas) on Monday.

A special election was scheduled for May after Wright died Feb. 7 after a battle with COVID-19.

Brian Harrison, a Republican and Texas native, told the Star-Telegram he will join the race for the Texas 6th Congressional District seat. Harrison was appointed deputy chief of staff of the HHS and promoted to chief of staff in 2019. He helped coordinate Operation Warp Speed, a plan to develop and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine to millions of Americans during Trump's presidency, alongside former HHS secretary Alex Azar.

Harrison, a Texas A&M graduate who worked within the George W. Bush administration, said while in D.C. he "took on the swamp, the liberal national media and the establishment." One of his primary goals is to make the federal government "as irrelevant as possible in the lives of Texans."

"I want to keep the Trump movement alive," he said.

As a self-described defender of conservative, Christian ideals, Harrison helped pass rules that led to Planned Parenthood forfeiting Title X funds, provided alternative options to Obamacare and created term limits for senior bureaucrats in the federal government during his time in the Trump administration.

He aims to continue those battles against abortion, Obamacare and "the swamp" for the 6th Congressional District.

Harrison said he wants to amend the U.S. Constitution in order to curb federal regulations. Harrison said Congress "outsources its job" of creating laws by relying on agencies, including the HHS, to create regulations. "Unelected bureaucrats" should not have legal authority over people's lives, he said.

"Americans in this country should be free, and Washington should have no impact on their lives unless the President, Congress and the Senate passes a law," he said. "And at this point, we need to amend the Constitution to get back to that."

As a business owner, Harrison said another priority is to protect small businesses, especially through deregulation. Harrison has run several family businesses in Ellis County, including a homebuilding company and a labradoodle-breeding business.

As the HHS chief of staff, Harrison went after the Food and Drug Administration for imposing a $14,000 fee on American distilleries for creating hand sanitizer amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The HHS voided the fee, and Harrison said he personally "put the FDA back in their place" and ordered the tax be abolished.

Harrison has spoken out against the Biden administration, saying it unfairly disparaged Operation Warp Speed. According to CNN, sources reported to the news organization that the Trump administration did not leave President Joe Biden and his advisers with a workable coronavirus distribution plan.

"They're liars, and I know firsthand they're liars because I led the first transition briefing to the Biden administration," he told the Star-Telegram. "And it was on Operation Warp Speed and vaccine distribution planning."

Harrison said the Biden administration received hundreds of briefings on the coronavirus vaccination strategy. In a Jan. 24 op-ed for Fox News, he wrote that the Trump administration delivered millions of vaccine doses and "two extraordinarily safe and effective vaccines, with more in the pipeline."

"I genuinely believe my friends, my neighbors, my colleagues, people I grew up with here in the 6th Congressional District — they're looking for, and they deserve, a leader who can deliver for them," he said. "And I'm the only person in this race who has a track record of proven results for the men and women of Texas and Washington."

A special election is set for May 1 to replace Wright. As of Sunday, four other candidates had announced their bid for the seat, including Susan Wright, Ron Wright's widowed wife.

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