Anti-Abortion GOP Congressman Scott Desjarlais Loses by 280 Votes Years After Pressuring Mistress to Get an Abortion

Republican congressman Scott DesJarlais, a longstanding opponent of abortion rights, has lost his Tennessee seat by just 280 votes, 14 years after the publication of a recorded conversation in which he urged a patient with whom he had been having an affair to seek an abortion.

Democrat Victoria Broderick defeated eight-term Republican Scott DesJarlais in Tennessee's 4th Congressional District on 3 November 2026, according to the Tennessee Secretary of State's office. The margin was 0.14 percentage points. DesJarlais had not conceded as of Wednesday night, 4 November.

An Unexpected Democratic Upset

Broderick won 48.87 per cent of the vote to DesJarlais's 48.73 per cent. DesJarlais won the seat by more than 100,000 votes in 2024, taking nearly 70 per cent, and had held it since 2011. Republican lawmakers had redrawn the state's congressional map to eliminate Memphis's Democratic seat, and the new 4th District took in parts of Democratic-leaning Nashville.

Broderick won despite a substantial fundraising disadvantage. Federal Election Commission filings show that Broderick raised approximately $94,000 and spent $90,000 through 14 October, compared with $667,000 raised and $508,000 spent by DesJarlais.

Republicans won eight of Tennessee's nine House seats, leaving Broderick as the only Democrat in the delegation. She said in a statement that 'District 4 rose to the occasion'.

The Recording and the Divorce Transcript

The abortion allegation first surfaced in October 2012. HuffPost obtained a transcript of a phone call, apparently made in mid-September 2000, in which DesJarlais, then a physician in Jasper, pressed a patient with whom he was having an affair about an abortion. He told her they were getting 'too far along without one', according to the transcript.

Three independent sources told HuffPost that DesJarlais made the recording himself. A Hamilton County judge later released the full divorce-trial transcript after a motion by the Tennessee Democratic Party. In it, DesJarlais acknowledged under oath that he was involved in taping the call, and he maintained that he knew, as a physician, she was not pregnant.

According to the divorce-trial transcript, the woman testified under oath that she had been pregnant. She declined to say whether she had undergone an abortion but testified that she had not had a child with DesJarlais. He maintained that she had never been pregnant.

DesJarlais also testified that he and Susan, who later became his wife, had agreed to two abortions before their marriage in 1995. Divorce records also revealed that DesJarlais had admitted to eight extramarital affairs, including relationships with patients and colleagues.

Reprimand and Political Survival

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Tennessee Department of Health. In May 2013, the Board of Medical Examiners reprimanded DesJarlais and assessed a $500 (£385) civil penalty, plus costs, for unprofessional conduct.

The board never discussed whether he tried to persuade a patient to have an abortion. CREW's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said the decision showed the state's ban on sexual exploitation of patients was 'essentially meaningless'. DesJarlais did not deny the transcript's validity but told the Associated Press that opponents were engaging in 'gutter politics'.

In 2015, his spokesman said voters cared more about his work in Washington than the details of his previous marriage. He voted that year for a ban on most abortions after 20 weeks. He has pointed to a 100 per cent rating from National Right to Life.

Despite the revelations, he continued to win re-election after the story broke.

What the Result Does and Does Not Show

No source reviewed for this article establishes how many voters weighed the 2012 revelations. Nashville Scene reported that Broderick campaigned against the 'scandal-ridden' incumbent for more than two years. The Associated Press described the national result, in which Democrats won both chambers, as 'a decisive rebuke of Republican governance in Washington'.

The results remained unofficial pending certification. Under Tennessee law, county election commissions must certify their results no later than the third Monday after the election, November 23.

Tennessee does not provide automatic recounts, and candidates cannot directly demand one solely because of a narrow margin. A recount may, however, be ordered by a court or other authorised body during a formal election contest.

Broderick is due to take the seat when the new Congress convenes in January.

A scandal rooted in a conversation recorded in 2000 may have helped end a political career that survived it for a decade.