Rep. Renee Ellmers (R)
If you told me back in January of 2011 that North Carolina Rep. Renee Ellmers—
Renee Ellmers!—would not be crazy enough for the GOP in just four years time ... well, there's just no way to finish that sentence, because my head has already exploded. Yet here we are, what with Ellmers apparently becoming "sane" by comparison and bits of my brain all over the room.
You see, a few days ago, Ellmers took the lead in telling her Republican colleagues that maybe they'd be better off not sticking Todd Akin's foot in their collective mouths by pushing forward with a vote on the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" that would have restricted access to abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Don't get me wrong: Ellmers is totally on board with the idea—she's not sane-sane, just Republican sane—but she got queasy with language in the bill that would have only permitted an exception in the case of rape if the victim reported the rape to the authorities first.
Amazingly, the GOP leadership agreed with Ellmers and yanked the bill, but now Ellmers may have to pay the ultimate price for trying to shut that thing down. According to Emily Cahn, Chatham County Republican Party chair Jim Duncan had already been considering a primary challenge to Ellmers, and now her anti-anti-abortion meddling might be the final straw that pushes him into the race.
Ellmers faced primary opposition last year in her dark red 2nd District from a badly underfunded Some Dude named Frank Roche but still only managed to win 59 percent of the vote. And in 2012, against an array of nobodies, she took just 58 percent in the primary. Now, Duncan threatened to run against Ellmers last cycle too but backed off, so he may decline again. But with a track record like this, Ellmers is certainly vulnerable. She just jabbed the "pro-life" sasquatch in the eye very hard, and she may soon discover the consequences.