State Sen. Jim Tracy officially launches 2014 GOP challenge to U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais

photo Sen. Jim Tracy
Arkansas-Tennessee Live Blog

NASHVILLE - Republican state Sen. Jim Tracy officially launched his 2014 GOP primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., with a vow aimed at putting the embattled incumbent on the spot.

"A change in leadership is a must," the 56-year-old Shelbyville Republican said today. The country's problems, he said, "are too great to have our leaders preoccupied with their own personal scandals."

DesJarlais, a Jasper physician first elected in 2010, has been rocked by revelations that he slept with at least two patients in 2000, urged one of them who said she was pregnant by him to get an abortion and other issues.

Tracy said residents of the 4th Congressional District require someone of "integrity and good character."

DesJarlais, he said, "has betrayed and deceived his constituents."

Read more in tomorrow's Times Free Press.

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