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Montana Democratic Sen. John Walsh is expected to resign after the revelation that he plagiarized his 2007 Master's thesis.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two abortion leaders are being considered as possible replacements for embattled Sen. John Walsh, D-MT, who, after his appointment to the Senate earlier this year, is under fire for plagiarism in his 2007 Master's thesis. At least two Montana newspapers have called on him to either step down from office or not run for the seat this fall.

According to a blog post by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Democrats are considering EMILY's List President Stephanie Schriock and former NARAL President Nancy Keenan as potential candidates to take Walsh's place on the November ballot. The NRSC said Keenan is a “long shot who [has] little chance of winning,” but said Schriock could be a leading candidate.

If Walsh is to resign, however, it would have to be soon. He won his primary earlier this year, which means that if a replacement candidate is not named by August 20 Democrats would not have a candidate on the ballot in the fall. Walsh has until August 11 to resign and not have his name on the ballot, which would then give Democrats nine days to find a new candidate.

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Schriock has spent the last decade heavily involved in Democratic politics. In 2004, she was the finance director for former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's failed presidential campaign. After that, she was chief of staff for Sen. Jon Tester's first campaign, eventually leaving his office to run Sen. Al Franken's campaign in 2008. She has headed EMILY's List since 2010.

Keenan, who was president of NARAL from 2004 to the end of 2012, has experience on both sides of the political fence. In addition to education policy advocacy prior to becoming NARAL's president, she was a state representative in Montana in the 1980s. She was also a teacher for more than a dozen years in the 1970s and 1980s.

Walsh, who was Montana's lieutenant governor before being named to the Senate, replaced Sen. Max Baucus after the latter's resignation to become the U.S. ambassador to China. Unlike most incumbents, however, Walsh was losing to first-term Rep. Steve Gaines even before the plagiarism scandal was first reported.