From a comment to the story: We, the GOP, selected the wife of the former rep, Dan Johnson to run. Dan killed himself after having been accused, as a preacher, of assaulting a 17 year old.
To win in most districts a complete campaign is needed:
Good candidate
Good message and media
Good ground game
Right now everyone needs to double check the reality of the candidates.
I remember that one. I guess they thought she could invoke the “Hillary” factor (wife of an elected official).
We also don't need a repeat of the Karl Rove strategy, that we seem intent on doing. The President is more important to these candidates than you seem to think.
Of course we have the entire leadership of the GOP willing to go down to defeat and Supreme Court be damned.