Andy Harris left The Cambridge Debate by snapping at constituents who giggled when he explained why diesel fuel prices were soaring, then turned his anger on a student reporter who tried to record his post-debate press conference. The eight-term Republican from Maryland's First Congressional District told the student, in effect, that she had no permission to record and that he would seek a prosecutor if she did.
That kind of scene matters because Harris has spent years proving he can absorb political heat and still win. He first broke through in 1998 with a decisive Republican primary victory over Vernon Boozer, served three terms in the Maryland State Senate in Baltimore and Harford Counties, upset Wayne T. Gilchrest in the 2008 primary for Maryland's First Congressional District, lost the general election to Frank Kratovil that year, then beat Kratovil in a rematch in 2010. Since then, he has won seven subsequent re-election contests by double digits.
The record helps explain why. A 2011 redrawing of Maryland's map helped create a seventh Democratic congressional district and packed Republicans into Harris's district, making the seat more favorable to him than a simple look at his margins might suggest. He is also chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, which has kept him in the center of conservative politics even as his style at public events has become more abrasive. At The Cambridge Debate, that style was on display again: when he was interrupted, he told one listener, “You should let me finish the sentence, ma’am. You are rude. You’re rude. OK?”
The friction is that the same political durability that protects Harris also insulates him from the cost of behavior that would sink a weaker incumbent. He can sound confrontational, even threatening, and still return to a district he has repeatedly carried by wide margins. What remains unanswered is whether that public temper is starting to matter beyond the room where it happened, or whether the district's design and partisan lean will keep blunting the damage.
