MURFREESBORO (AP) — A Republican activist from Murfreesboro is announcing a challenge to scandal-plagued U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais in next year's GOP primary in the 4th Congressional District.

Grant Starrett, a former staffer on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, said he wants to be elected to Congress to help fight a "moral crisis" facing the country.

DesJarlais, a Jasper physician who now opposes abortion rights, won a third term in November despite a series of personal scandals that included affairs with patients, urging a mistress to seek an abortion and once holding a gun in his mouth for hours outside his ex-wife's room.

DesJarlais won the Republican primary in August by just 38 votes.