Female pediatric neurosurgeon. Running for Senate as a Republican in Oregon. Gets the New York Times profile treatment. Then … two harassment/stalking charges come to light. Her past is now being called “weird” and people want to know if the Republicans still vet. Also … her position on abortion doesn’t rate for true conservatives.
Today she takes on Jason Conger in the primary; the winner goes on to face Jeff Merkley, who’s viewed as potentially vulnerable based on ObamaCare’s role in Oregon. As of about a week ago, she was leading Conger by 17 points. Oregon has a fairly large mail-in ballot system even for primaries, so it’s possible a good deal of ballots were mailed before the newest stuff broke about her potentially “stalking” ex-boyfriends. That’s all a long way of saying she’ll probably win today’s primary, but her general election challenge now seems a bit harder.
To recap: female Republican who works as a doctor (hence comes from outside government). That should be the future of the party, in some ways. The New York Times thought so! Within days, the new narrative: crazy, wide-eyed stalker of a woman who has serious lapses in judgment on the regular. The American political discourse: not so fully evolved in 2014.
