Oregon Republican Senate candidate Monica Wehby on Tuesday night admitted to “mistakes” but pledged to “try to make things better” if elected Senator this fall.
{mosads}In her victory speech, after easily defeating her primary challenger, state Rep. Jason Conger, Wehby addressed recent negative press she’s received surrounding messy details of her past romantic relationships.
“There have been a lot of vicious ugly personal attacks,” Wehby said, according to local news station KGW. “Lord knows I am not perfect. I am like a lot of other Oregonians.”
“I am a working mom … I try my best, but in life we all make mistakes. And when I do I’m no different than the rest of you, I pick myself back up and I try to make things better. I promise you I’ll do that as your senator.”
She went on to knock Democrats for the focus on her personal life.
“But I do have a message for those national Democrats who were willing to shred my family for their own political gain: People are tired of your dirty tricks,” he said.
As the crowd cheered, Wehby declared: “We all know that the best way to defeat a bully is to stand up to him, and that is exactly what we are going to do. Tonight we are sending a message that this Senate race will not be decided by the kind of politics that people in this country are so tired of.”
Wehby managed to pull out a win in the primary despite late-breaking news about her personal relationships. Politico reported this past weekend that Wehby’s ex-boyfriend, Andrew Miller, accused Wehby of “stalking” him in a police report filed last spring.
And on Monday, the Oregonian reported that Wehby’s ex-husband, Jim Grant, accused her of “ongoing harassment” in a Portland, Ore., police report when they were in the middle of their 2007 divorce.
But Oregon is an all-mail ballot state, and it seems the details emerged too late to reverse an early lead Wehby cemented over Conger.
She remains an underdog against Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) in the blue state, but on Tuesday night was defiant. Wehby slammed Merkley for voting with President Obama “95 percent of the time” and declared, “Oregonians don’t agree with anyone 95 percent of the time.”
Wehby’s background as a pediatric neurosurgeon is part of what’s made her so appealing to national Republicans, and has been a selling point of her candidacy in the primary. She hinted that the theme would carry her through the general on Tuesday night.
“Keep your doctor, change your Senator,” Wehby implored the crowd.