Mike Pence's Wife Campaigns for Candidate Who Wants Gay People in Jail

Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, spoke at a rally Monday for Mark Harris, a Republican candidate who thinks gay sex should be outlawed.

Harris, who is running for a U.S. House of Representatives seat from North Carolina, is an evangelical pastor who's made a name for himself by denouncing gay people, saying among other things that the legalization of same-sex marriage threatens Christianity.

"We have watched in one generation where homosexuality was once criminalized to now we see the criminalization of Christianity. And I could go on and on with the entertainment, with the education, with the life issue," he said at an event in 2015.

He has also claimed that America is in "moral decay" and has been heavily backed by the American Family Association, a designated anti-LGBTQ hate group, which has gone so far as to stream his sermons on its American Family Radio.

During the rally in Charlotte, N.C., the second lady said that both she and Mike Pence would like to see Harris in the House of Representatives.

"Mike and I support Mark Harris for Congress. I'm here because this race is so important," Karen Pence told the crowd, as detailed in a Facebook video. "He's the kind of strong, principled conservative leader who will stand with this administration to deliver results. He's a husband, a father, a pastor, a leader. He has devoted his life to his service to others ... a devoted servant of God."

Pence also told evangelical commentator Elizabeth Johnston, a.k.a. the "Activist Mommy," that electing Harris was necessary to carry out Donald Trump's agenda.

"It's very important that we keep the majority in the House, or the president's agenda is going to be stopped short," Pence asserted, commenting on the White House's determination to end abortion in America. "This resident is promises made and promises kept, and if we don't elect Mark Harris, we're going to stop that agenda. It's going to be stopped dead in its tracks."

Among his homophobic stances, Harris has claimed that being LGBTQ is a choice. "I've yet to buy in, as there is not the medical evidence, that an individual that chooses the homosexual lifestyle is born that way. That is a choice," he told a Charlotte TV host while running for the U.S. Senate in 2013, according to Right Wing Watch. Harris reaffirmed this belief in an interview this August with Roll Call, in which he also asserted that wives should "submit" to their husbands.

Harris defeated incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger to win the Republican nomination for North Carolina's Ninth Congressional District seat in May. In the November 6 general election he is running against Democratic businessman Dan McCready. Pollsters are calling the race a toss-up between the two candidates.

Pence concluded by stating why she made the journey to North Carolina: "I'm here because this race is so important. The road to the majority leads right through North Carolina. This seat, this race, it is critical to keeping the majority in Congress."