Monica Wehby

Monica Wehby (born May 7, 1962) is an American physician and politician from the state of Oregon.

Raised a Catholic, she graduated from Father Ryan High School in 1979 and went on to earn a BS in Microbiology and a BA in Psychology from the University of Notre Dame.

Wehby graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where she served as student body president, senior class president, and chair of the medical student section of the Texas Medical Association.

She completed a neurosurgery residency at UCLA Medical School in 1995 and a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine in 1997.

In 1998, she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she became director of pediatric neurosurgery at Randall Children's Hospital at Legacy Emanuel.

The battle between the more centrist, establishment-supported Wehby and the more conservative, grass-roots-supported Conger was seen as symptomatic of a Republican Party that had failed to win a statewide election in Oregon since then-U.S. Senator Gordon H. Smith was re-elected in 2002.

In early May, a poll released by the conservative polling organization Vox Populi Polling showed Wehby leading Merkley by 45% to 41%.

However, her candidacy also began to receive greater scrutiny.

After an interview with the Willamette Week editorial board, the newspaper endorsed Jason Conger for the Republican primary, saying that although they "probably agree on more issues with Wehby than we do with Conger", there was "no contest" when it came to "preparation, knowledge of the issues and an ability to express the results of clear thinking."

Wehby was also questioned about her links to businessman Andrew Miller, a major Republican donor, who had contributed heavily to efforts to support her and oppose Jason Conger.

When asked if there was any collaboration between her campaign and the PAC financed by Miller, Wehby said that "there is absolutely no coordination between our campaign and the group."

The Democratic Party of Oregon filed a complaint to the Federal Election Commission, saying that it was "implausible" to think that Miller would not be privy to private information about her campaign plans and projects.

Later that year, a television ad was released in which the narrator stated that Merkley "voted six times to raise the debt limit. " The ad was produced and financed by a group called Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce; a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

In 2004, Wehby led an unsuccessful statewide campaign for Ballot Measure 35, which would have loosened Oregon's medical malpractice regulations, limiting damages recovered for patient injuries caused by a healthcare provider's negligence or recklessness.

The measure failed by 896,857 votes (50.02%) to 896,054 (49.98%).

In 2007, she was elected president of the Oregon Medical Association and in 2009, she appeared in nationwide television advertisements warning about possible problems with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare).

In the primary election, she faced information technology consultant Mark Callahan, State Representative Jason Conger, attorney Tim Crawley and former chairwoman of the Linn County Republican Party and nominee for Mayor of Albany in 2010 Jo Rae Perkins.

Much of her campaign focused on criticism of the Affordable Care Act and Merkley's support for it, with her slogan of "Keep Your Doctor, Change Your Senator".

She also criticized primary opponent Jason Conger for voting to set up a state-run insurance exchange.

Instead, she proposed allowing people to "purchase an insurance plan with pretax dollars" and "buy insurance across state lines" as well as expanding health savings accounts and letting people have catastrophic coverage.

In late April, Wehby released an advertisement that received significant attention.

Called "Trust", the minute-long ad was narrated by a former patient of Wehby's, who was advised to terminate her pregnancy after an ultrasound discovered a congenital disorder with her unborn daughter's spinal cord.

However, Wehby successfully performed surgery after the patient's daughter was born and she survived.

The ad was widely praised and drew national attention to her campaign and to the Oregon Republican primary.

In 2011, she was elected to the board of trustees of the American Medical Association.

The organization, which was founded in 2011 under the name Association for American Innovation, was purposed to promote "the benefits of free markets and a free society."

It was partially funded by the Koch brothers, and sponsored various Republican politicians and conservative groups.

In October 2013, Wehby announced that she would seek the Republican nomination for the United States Senate seat held by first-term Democratic incumbent Jeff Merkley.

She said that "I want our kids to have the same opportunities that we had. I'm really concerned when I look at the way things are going we may be the first generation that can't say that their kids are going to be better off."

She was the Republican nominee for the United States Senate from Oregon in the 2014 election against Democratic incumbent Jeff Merkley.

Wehby was born in Nashville, Tennessee.

Her father was a Certified Public Accountant, and her mother was a registered nurse.

Her grandfather immigrated from Lebanon.

As Republicans were hoping to retake control of the Senate in the 2014 elections, it was hoped that Wehby's profile as a successful surgeon and moderate Republican, combined with Merkley's middling popularity and the disastrous rollout of Cover Oregon, the state's Affordable Care Act insurance exchange website, would result in Oregon coming into play as a competitive race.

While Wehby drew the support of the Republican establishment and the National Republican Senatorial Committee and endorsements from national politicians such as Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney, she received criticism from conservatives for her moderate political positions on issues such as immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage.

She was also criticised by primary opponent Jason Conger for her support of the Healthy Americans Act, co-sponsored by Oregon's other U.S. Senator, Democrat Ron Wyden, and Utah Republican Bob Bennett, which Conger said was "90 percent there with Obamacare" because it contained provisions that people purchase government-approved insurance plans.

Wehby responded that it was "a good plan; it was a market-based approach" and said that she never supported the entire bill and did not think uninsured people should be mandated or enticed into buying health insurance.

The group was dissolved in 2019 amidst a restructuring of the Koch family's giving.

While Wehby welcomed the ad campaign, she also made it clear she didn’t work with the group as doing so would violate federal election law.

The Oregon state primary was set to take place Tuesday May 21 as Webhy faced Representative Jason Conger.