The Republican Party’s troubles with women—specifically, with electing them—are playing out in full force in a North Carolina special election primary. Two doctors are facing off against each other in a primary runoff to replace the late Rep. Walter Jones. Both are drawing hundreds of thousands of dollars of outside spending and both are trying to claim to be the most conservative, but Dr. Joan Perry is a woman with the backing of Rep. Liz Cheney, Sen. Joni Ernst, Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich, while Dr. Greg Murphy is a man with the backing of Reps. Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan and the political fund of the House Freedom Caucus.
WFW Action Fund, a group dedicated to electing Republican women, has accused Murphy of being a liberal who doesn’t like Donald Trump enough. House Freedom Action has described Perry as “another lying Nancy Pelosi liberal.” Not just liberal, but Nancy Pelosi liberal. Why, she has girl cooties all over her.
Murphy’s campaign manager insinuated to The New York Times that Perry was too liberal for the district, saying that her support comes from “A lot of women from across the political spectrum,” and that Murphy “thinks it would be great to have more women in Congress, but we don’t believe in playing identity politics. You want to vote for the person who best represents the district.” On the local-representing-the-district front, Perry has the endorsement of Walter Jones’ widow, Joe Anne Jones—a move that stopped Murphy from claiming he’d had Walter’s endorsement.
So here it is. A Republican primary where the establishment of Republican women, such as it is, is united behind a woman, while the big boys of the House Freedom Caucus are eager to welcome another boy to their club. And no one is pretending it’s not about gender. The runoff is Tuesday—stay tuned.