The representative from the 2nd District is Renee Ellmers, a Republican elected in 2010 in a district that was on no one’s target list six months before the election. Ellmers grew up in the blue-collar Detroit suburb of Madison Heights, where her father worked in the auto industry. To pay her way through college, she trained as a medical assistant and worked full- and part-time jobs while taking classes. In 1990, she graduated from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She worked as a nurse in the surgical intensive care unit at Beaumont Hospital, where she met her husband, surgeon Brent Ellmers. Shortly after the couple had their son, Ben, they took a trip to see family members in Cary, the fast-growing suburb just west of Raleigh, and decided to move to the Tar Heel State—part of a not inconsiderable migration from hard-pressed Michigan to booming North Carolina. They live in Dunn, in Hartnett County south of Raleigh, where Ellmers worked as a nurse in her husband’s practice at the Trinity Wound Care Center and got involved in the Dunn chamber of commerce. Read More
The representative from the 2nd District is Renee Ellmers, a Republican elected in 2010 in a district that was on no one’s target list six months before the election. Ellmers grew up in the blue-collar Detroit suburb of Madison Heights, where her father worked in the auto industry. To pay her way through college, she trained as a medical assistant and worked full- and part-time jobs while taking classes. In 1990, she graduated from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She worked as a nurse in the surgical intensive care unit at Beaumont Hospital, where she met her husband, surgeon Brent Ellmers. Shortly after the couple had their son, Ben, they took a trip to see family members in Cary, the fast-growing suburb just west of Raleigh, and decided to move to the Tar Heel State—part of a not inconsiderable migration from hard-pressed Michigan to booming North Carolina. They live in Dunn, in Hartnett County south of Raleigh, where Ellmers worked as a nurse in her husband’s practice at the Trinity Wound Care Center and got involved in the Dunn chamber of commerce.
State and national Republicans did little to mount a strong challenge to Bob Etheridge, a Democrat first elected in 1996 with a somewhat moderate record in a district that had just voted Democratic for president. North Carolina Democrats thought enough of him to try to talk him into running against Sen. Richard Burr. He was not interested and undoubtedly confident of winning an eighth term in 2010.
Meanwhile, Ellmers in 2009 and 2010 was appalled that her congressman had supported the Democrats’ health care legislation wending its way to passage. “So rather than sit at home yelling at the TV set, which I did, I decided I needed to get involved,” she told The Sanford Herald. Ellmers started going to county GOP meetings and joined the bus tour organized by Americans for Prosperity as it traveled across the country protesting the legislation. Though unnoticed by national Republican strategists, she built enough of an organization to win the May GOP primary with 55% of the vote against two businessmen who got 26% and 19%. She won 70% of the vote in her home county of Harnett, 62% in Lee County next door and 55% in Johnston County. She won more than the 40% needed to win without a runoff in North Carolina in all but one county in the district.
Ellmers cast the general election as a stark choice between the Obama agenda and a different direction for the country. “I’m a mother, wife and nurse, and I never dreamed I’d be running for Congress, but it’s time to put a stop to the Obama rubber stamp in Congress and Washington politics as usual,” she said, noting that Etheridge had voted with his party over 95% of the time.
In June, she got a break from Etheridge himself. When two young Republican operatives approached the incumbent outside the House office buildings and asked him whether he supported “the Obama agenda,” Etheridge asked them repeatedly, in tones of some outrage, who they were, and grabbed one by the wrist and the other, briefly, by the neck. The operatives captured the encounter on videotape and posted it on YouTube. Etheridge quickly apologized, but after the video got 3 million hits, contributions poured into Ellmers’ campaign. Republican groups followed up with $360,000 worth of attack ads highlighting the incident. And Ellmers got an endorsement from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
National Republicans were still skeptical whether she was ready for prime time. In one of her ads, Ellmers claimed that an Islamic center planned for a site near Ground Zero in New York was a “victory mosque.” And Etheridge continued to have a huge money advantage. He spent $1.9 million to Ellmers’ $890,000.
On Election Day, Ellmers edged out Etheridge 49.5%-48.7%. She won 60% in Harnett County, Etheridge’s home as well as hers, 56% in Lee County and 64% in Johnston County, once a reliable Democratic stronghold. Etheridge won 73% in the heavily black portions of Wake County and 75% in heavily black parts of Cumberland County (Fayetteville). Etheridge asked for a recount, but it showed no significant change, and he conceded on Nov.19. In her first month in office, Ellmers attracted some attention when she declined an invitation to the White House.
Ellmers has taken an interest in small business and health care issues. She voted for the controversial overhaul of Medicare that was proposed by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. After the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee targeted Ellmers for her vote, she held district town hall meetings defending her position, replete with charts and PowerPoint presentations. Ellmers has insisted that overturning the 2010 health care law would help revive the economy. In the summer of 2011, Ellmers charged that the 15-member Independent Payment Advisory Board (which the health care law set up) would have the ability to deny surgery to a patient. A News & Observer story declared Ellmers’ accusation to be false.
Ellmers has been an ally of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. and was frequently seen at press conferences alongside the Republican leadership during her first year. She supported the sweeping “Cut, Cap, and Balance” bill that would, among other things, implement a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced budget. But unlike some conservative deficit hawks, Ellmers did eventually support the Boehner-White House compromise, voting for less radical spending changes in order to raise the debt ceiling in August 2011. During that same month,The New York Times described Ellmers this way: “Her loyalty, relentless cheer and folksy locution…have combined to make her one of the Republican leadership’s greatest freshman allies, and a rising star in the conference.” In early 2012, Ellmers served on a special conference committee to hash out differences over a proposed payroll tax holiday.
Ellmers called for a congressional inquiry into federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a health care services organization that also provides abortions. Though she is an opponent of same-sex marriage, she surprised some people by saying she would vote against a May 2012 North Carolina ballot measure banning gay marriage in the state constitution; Ellmers said the initiative was too broadly written and should not include civil unions.
