Politico: “A senior Trump health official’s bid to become the first administration alumnus elected to Congress is running into resistance from an unlikely source: his own former colleagues. Brian Harrison, a chief of staff to former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, has angered a swath of Trump White House and HHS political appointees with his ‘America First’-style campaign in the special election for a Dallas-area House seat, prompting complaints that he’s inflating his record and trying to co-opt Trump’s brand. A first-time candidate who helped run a labradoodle-breeding family business prior to joining the Trump administration, Harrison has sought to break out of a crowded Republican field by casting himself as a key driver of Trump’s agenda, touting his role in the administration’s Covid vaccine development effort and taking credit for a series of anti-abortion and deregulatory policies.”
“But the 38-year-old’s claims have reignited rivalries that raged throughout much of the Trump years, putting Harrison at odds with former White House and health officials who viewed him more as a driver of internal conflicts that hampered Trump’s health care ambitions, according to nearly a dozen former administration officials. The campaign has prompted one top Trump HHS official, Roger Severino, to endorse one of Harrison’s opponents, amid what three former officials described as frustration with Harrison running on the kinds of anti-abortion policies that Severino’s office worked on and struggled at times to convince department leaders to finalize. Others have worked furiously behind the scenes to counter Harrison’s campaign, going as far as to urge Trump not to weigh in on Harrison’s behalf as the special election hits its stretch run. ‘There are people close to the president reminding him not to endorse Brian Harrison,’ a former White House official said. ‘There’s no MAGA candidate in that race.’ Harrison said he’s raised more than $600,000 ahead of the May 1 election to fill the seat vacated by the late Rep. Ron Wright, who died in February after contracting coronavirus. It’s a sum he expressed confidence would help catapult him to the top of a 23-candidate field that includes 11 Republicans, including Wright’s widow, Susan Wright.”