PoliticsTennessee is holding US Senate and House primaries on August 6.- Former US Ambassador Bill Hagerty defeated Dr. Manny Sethi in the heated primary to replace retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander.
- Polls closed at 7 p.m. Central Time and 8 p.m. Eastern Time in Tennessee.
Polls closed at 7 p.m. CT in the Western portion of the state located in the Central Time Zone and at 8 p.m. ET in the parts of the state located in the Eastern Time Zone in Tennessee.
The races:
Businessman and former US Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty, who is the preferred candidate of President Donald Trump, defeated Dr. Manny Sethi, a Nashville-based surgeon and first-time candidate, in the crowded Republican primary to replace retiring GOP Senator Lamar Alexander in solidly Republican Tennessee.
This primary, like many of the contentious intraparty battles of 2020, devolved into an acrimonious battle over which candidate has stronger conservative bonafides and will be a more loyal ally to Trump. It's a primary fight some described as the nastiest and intense in Tennessee's recent history.
As The New York Times and the National Review have noted, the tenor of the primary means that whichever candidate wins will be a stark departure from the type of centrist, mild-mannered, and pro-business Republicans Tennessee has traditionally elected. Former Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who often disagreed with and openly criticized Trump, retired in 2018 and was replaced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a strong conservative and vocal supporter of Trump.
Hagerty, a Tennessee native who served as ambassador to Japan under the Trump administration for over two years from January 2017 to July 2019, earned Trump's endorsement right out of the gate and was expected to easily secure the GOP nomination.
But now Hagerty still faced a tough challenge from Sethi, an orthopedic trauma surgeon at Vanderbilt Medical Center and son of first-generation immigrants from India. Sethi is running a campaign as a populist conservative outsider, and has experienced a last-minute surge of support and momentum, making this race highly competitive.
Despite both candidates holding solidly conservative views, they spent considerable time trying to attack each others' political donation records for being too liberal.
Sethi hit Hagerty for serving as a finance chair for the 2012 presidential campaign of Trump foe Sen. Mitt Romney, and donating $1,000 to Al Gore in the 2000 election, leading Hagerty to forcefully distance himself from Romney. His ads have negatively portrayed Hagerty as being entrenched in a wealthy "ruling class" establishment more similar to Romney's brand of conservatism than Trump's.
Meanwhile, Hagerty attacked Sethi for not donating to Trump's 2016 campaign and for his wife donating $50 to former Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello in 2008 through ActBlue, a platform that processes payments for Democratic candidates and some nonprofits, including ones connected to the Black Lives Matter movement and police reform efforts.
In addition to attacking each other, both candidates aired ads forcefully denouncing the recent riots in the wake of police killings this spring as dangerous, anti-police, and connected to socialism.
And while the candidates have mostly similar policy positions and would both be reliable party-line votes and conservative voices in the Senate, the primary somewhat divided differing factions of the GOP.
Hagerty has the backing of Trump and much of the party's establishment heavyweights, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Blackburn, Sen. Tom Cotton, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group. Meanwhile, Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have broken with Trump to endorse Sethi.
If Hagerty loses, he'd be the fifth Trump-endorsed Senate or House candidate to lose a primary this cycle, following Rep. Scott Tipton of Colorado, Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia, Rep. Steve Watkins of Kansas, and North Carolina House candidate Lynda Bennett.
Hagerty will face environmental justice organizer Marquita Bradshaw in the general election. She defeated minister and former Tennesse Assistant Attorney General Robin Kimbrough Hayes and US Army veteran and Tennessee National Guard Officer James Mackler in the primary.
In the general election, Tennessee's Senate race is rated as "safe Republican" by the Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics and "solid Republican" by Inside Elections.
Also on Thursday, there's a crowded Republican primary in the deep red first congressional district in East Tennessee to replace retiring Rep. Phil Roe. The leaders of the 16-candidate field include pharmacist Diana Harshberger, cancer pathologist Josh Gapp, State Sen. Rusty Crowe, former Kingsport Mayor John Clark, former Johnson City Commissioner Steve Darden, and State Rep. Timothy Hill.