Social conservatives worried about pulling the lever for Democrat-turned-Republican Kevin Nicholson can put their trust in Hallmark cliché: happy wife, happy life. The Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate converted to the anti-abortion cause when he got married. Now a father, Nicholson isn’t going to flip-flop again.
That’s worth noting in light recent attacks. Nicholson hasn’t won the nomination yet, but opponents are already circulating a speech he delivered as president of the College Democrats at the 2000 Democrat National Convention. On the stage where Vice President Al Gore would accept the nomination, Nicholson declared that the next generation “cares about a woman’s right to choose.”
And normally that’d be damning. Except that a lot has changed in the last 17 years. Nicholson became a Marine and fought in two wars. He got married and became a father of three. All of that contributed to the reason why he became a Republican.
“I’m strongly pro-life,” Nicholson explained in a video announcing his candidacy. “I’ve seen innocent children killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. And here in this country, it is unacceptable for our government to systematically allow the lives of innocent children to be taken.”
A well-written Politico profile fleshes out that transformation. After Nicholson got off the convention stage in 2000 his girlfriend, then Jessie Roos, chewed him out over the phone for the pro-abortion statement. It almost ended them.
“We got in a fight. I knew at the time it was not something he had thought extensively about,” she told Politico. “That definitely was a piece of the conversation in terms of courtship and leading toward marriage, because that was a no-go zone for me.”
But Nicholson changed his mind. They got married in 2003. And unless the candidate has been lying to his wife for the last fourteen years, the conversion seems legitimate. That should give social conservatives confidence. If Nicholson wins, and if he flip-flops on abortion in the Senate, the Republican won’t just betray his base. He’d blow up his marriage.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
