GOP state Sen. Renee Unterman has expressed interest in running for Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, a competitive open seat in the Atlanta suburbs, before, and while she didn’t commit to anything on Tuesday, she sounds likely to jump in. 

On Tuesday, GOP Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 481, which bans most abortions in Georgia after just six weeks, which is before many women even know that they’re pregnant.  Unterman was the bill’s main sponsor in the state Senate, and she called it the “culmination” of her time in the legislature.  When reporters asked Unterman if this meant she’d run to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Rob Woodall, Unterman only smiled and said nothing. 

If Unterman runs, her support for this draconian piece of legislation could help her assuage social conservatives who might doubt her loyalty to the party she openly considered leaving as late as January.  Back then, after Kemp’s allies stripped Unterman of her chairmanship of the powerful Senate Health and Human Services Committee, she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she was actually considering joining the Democrats. 

Unterman mused that she agreed with Team Blue "on a lot of social issues," which reporter Jim Galloway interpreted to mean health care and the environment.  However, Unterman also declared, “I’m a gun-toter.  I'm a hunter.  I'm a fisherman.  I'm pro-life.  I've carried every single abortion bill that's gone through the Senate." 

It looks like Unterman’s brief flirtations with a party switch are very much over, though her rivals in a GOP primary will still likely use this story against her.  And while Unterman’s championing of HB 481 may end up helping her win the nomination, it could end up being a liability in the general election for a suburban congressional district that has been moving rapidly to the left in recent years. 

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