Could Democrat Laura Fjeld pull off the extraordinary and defeat Mark Walker in this strongly Republican district? Of course. It’s possible. Then again, there are a lot of things in politics that are possible but not particularly likely to happen, and a Congresswoman Laura Fjeld is probably one of them.

Consider: the 6th district is strongly conservative, Mitt Romney won there by about 18 points, and we’re in a midterm that should favor the GOP. Walker probably starts off with a double-digit lead in any case. To win, Fjeld is going to need some breaks – a lot of breaks.

That said, Democrats should be heartened that they have a decent candidate here just in case Walker somehow implodes. And really, there’s so much that could happen. Maybe he’ll use a racial slur, or make a comment about “legitimate rape.” Maybe he’ll choke a campaign tracker or prove to have a fondness for sending explicit pictures of himself through Twitter. Or something else completely different. And in the unlikely event that Walker does implode, Fjeld will be well-positioned. That’s why it’s always important to recruit good candidates, even in tough districts. You never know what might happen.

Unfortunately for Democrats, they don’t seem to have done a very good job following this advice when it comes to recruitment for legislative districts. In the next few weeks we’ll be looking at a number of races that should be competitive on paper but where Democrats nominated seriously flawed candidates, or even worse, failed to run anyone at all. That’s absolutely unacceptable in a year where a backlash against the legislature is very much conceivable.

As the old saying goes, “80% of success is showing up.” Laura Fjeld probably won’t win, but at least she showed up. And who knows? Thanks to just showing up, she might win a seat in Congress this November. Much stranger things have happened in politics.

John Wynne

John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.