HICKORY, N.C. (WBTV) – Democrat Jeff Jackson has pulled a campaign ad that focused on a house owned by his opponent, Pat Harrigan. The move comes weeks after police began investigating a bullet that was shot into a house owned by Harrigan’s parents.
The Jackson campaign pulled the ad from WBTV late Thursday morning.
The ad centered on a lake house owned by Harrigan in Catawba County and ends with a shot of Jackson standing in front of a house on a lake.
Both Jackson and Harrigan are vying for a newly created seat in North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District.
The shooting happened in October, when Harrigan’s parents and children were in the house, a Harrigan spokesman confirmed.
A spokeswoman for the Hickory Police Department confirmed they are investigating the shooting.
Police have not confirmed any arrests in the case and have not connected the shooting to the ad.
Harrigan addressed the incident in a tweet Thursday morning.
“A bullet & death threats aren’t enough to knock this Green Beret off that mission,” the tweet said in part.
A spokesman for Jackson’s campaign issued the following statement:
“We fully support law enforcement as they investigate this incident and believe any wrongdoing should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 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.”
Be alerted to any developments in this investigation first through the free WBTV News app.
This story has been updated to clarify who owned the house where the shooting was reported and to reflect that Jackson was not standing in front of Harrigan’s house in his ad.
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