Like many representatives in 2010, Bob Etheridge is an erstwhile safe Democrat who hasn’t faced serious competition in the past. A seven-term congressman from Raleigh’s southern and eastern suburbs and farm country, Etheridge is a former tobacco farmer and state legislator with moderate social views and New Deal rural politics. It’s seemingly a perfect fit for a Southern district not quite ready to cast its lot with the GOP.
But the Second Congressional District could be outgrowing its native son. Republican challenger Renee Ellmers, a Michigan native who moved to the North Carolina with her husband and children, appeals more to the state’s service and technology future than its tobacco farming past.
That’s how the race might have been played, had it not been for an incident involving Etheridge that went viral on the Internet, causing the long-term congressman to gain more notoriety than he had previously for any legislative accomplishments. Recorded last June by two conservative students, the video, which now has nearly three million views on YouTube, shows Etheridge grabbing one of the students, first by the wrist and then around his arms, as the students asked the congressman if he supports the “Obama agenda.” When the video went viral, folks around the country began to ask who was facing this seemingly out of touch representative of the people.
“I hardly go a day where someone doesn’t bring up that video,” says Ellmers in a phone interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The national interest in the story raised her profile, with Ellmers now touting endorsements from Sarah Palin and the National Right to Life.
Read the full story at the Weekly Standard.
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