A Maryland Republican raised the prospect of awarding North Carolinas 16 Electoral College votes to GOP candidate Donald Trump even before the Nov. 5 presidential election, citing storm damage in the western portion of the state and purported certainty over how voters would have cast their ballots.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chair of a group of hard-right and libertarian House Republicans called the Freedom Caucus, made the comments Thursday at a GOP dinner event after a speech by pro-Trump activist Ivan Raiklin, who has argued that states should give their votes to the former president if they believe the 2024 election has been tainted.

North Carolina is a swing state that Trump previously won twice by slim margins. Polling averages favor him there by about 1 percentage point in next months election.

After Hurricane Helene made landfall in the southeastern U.S. in late September, the storm passed over western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, causing massive flooding in the mountainous region and resulting in a natural disaster declaration for the area. Cleanup efforts have continued and some roadways remain closed by the damage, hindering transportation.

You statistically can go and say: Hey, look, youve got disenfranchised in 25 counties. You know what that vote probably would have been which would be, if I were in the legislature, enough to go, Yeah, weve got to convene the legislature, we cant disenfranchise our voters, Harris said at the dinner, according to a video footage posted online by Raiklin, who often sits in the audience during congressional hearings.

Harris expressed doubt that any other state could legitimately use that reasoning, saying it might look like a power play elsewhere.

With North Carolina, I mean, its legitimate, he said. There are a lot of people who arent going to get to vote, and it may make the difference in that state.

The U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures the power to control their Electoral College votes; 48 states, including North Carolina, use a winner take all model that benefits the popular vote winner.

Harris voted against certifying the 2020 Electoral College results on Jan. 6, 2021 even after a violent mob, fueled by election fraud lies spread by Trump, ransacked the U.S. Capitol.

In a statement from his office, Harris said his remarks Thursday had been theoretical and taken out of context.

As Ive repeatedly said, every legal vote should be counted, Harris said.

Currently, voting is going well in western North Carolina, despite FEMA spending over a billion dollars housing illegal immigrants instead of helping North Carolinians, he added, repeating a false claim about the Federal Emergency Management Agencys hurricane relief efforts that Republicans in North Carolina have repeatedly debunked .

Despite extensive storm damage, the state broke its turnout record on the first day of early voting last week, with the vast majority of early voting sites still opening in the western counties hit hardest by flooding.