Last November, Tennessee's Fourth District Congressman Scott Desjarlais coasted to a 12-point victory over Democratic challenger Eric Stewart in Desjarlais' first re-election campaign. That's despite revelations that the pro-life physician had participated in sexual relations with some of his patients and had encouraged one to get an abortion.
The challenge for his third term is coming from within his own party and it might prove to be a more formidable one. Recent Federal Elections Commission filingsshow DesJarlais received total contributions of $152,630 during the first six months of 2013. State Representative Joe Carr brought in nearly twice as much ($305,704) during that same period and front-runner Jim Tracy's contributions ($739,928) outpaced DesJarlais' by a nearly 5-to-1 margin.
The primary election for the Fourth District Congressional seat is scheduled for August 7, 2014.