Widow chosen as Republican nominee after Kentucky lawmaker's suicide

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Widow chosen as Republican nominee after lawmaker's suicide

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. — Dec 29, 2017, 1:53 PM ET

The widow of a Kentucky lawmaker who killed himself following a sexual assault allegation has been nominated by Republicans to fill the seat he held.

Bullitt County GOP Chairman Paul Ham said a vote was taken Thursday night to nominate Rebecca Johnson.

Gov. Matt Bevin set a Feb. 20 special election to find a replacement for Republican Dan Johnson, whose body was found this month with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He died a day after denying that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl in 2013. Johnson was in his first term representing a House district south of Louisville.

Rebecca Johnson will face former state Rep. Linda Belcher. The Bullitt County Democratic Party announced on Thursday that Belcher was selected as the nominee by a unanimous vote.

Johnson was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 2016 amid a wave of Republican victories that gave the GOP control of the chamber for the first time in nearly a century. During the campaign, he defied calls from Republican leaders for him to drop out of the race after he compared Barack and Michelle Obama to monkeys in a Facebook post.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/wife-chosen-republican-nominee-lawmakers-suicide-52044719

[Siwsan]

1. She is philosophically identical to her husband.

Hopefully the people of Kentucky will be more responsible with their votes, this time. And more hopefully. This is not the time for Democrats to sit out a special election.