Name: Bill Hagerty wins Tennessee's bitter Republican US Senate primary
Brand: indystar.com
SKU: indystar-com-65
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Bill Hagerty wins Tennessee's bitter Republican US Senate primary

preview

Nashville TennesseanView CommentsNASHVILLE – Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty on Thursday after a bitter Tennessee primary battle that centered on support for President Donald Trump.The win comes after a rancorous final stretch of the race that saw high profile endorsements, attacks on the airwaves and in person.As of 8:15 p.m. CDT, the Associated Press had called the race for Hagerty, who had nearly 52% of the vote with just under half of precincts reporting.Hagerty, 60, emerged victorious from a crowded field of Republicans, including his closest competitor, Nashville orthopedic trauma surgeon Dr. Manny Sethi. All were hoping to succeed retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander.Just before 8 p.m., as results continued to trickle in, Hagerty told The Tennessean while inside his Gallatin hotel room he expected to get a "meaningful mandate" from Republican voters.More:More:“I think they’ve been able to sense the fire in my belly and the truth in my heart,” Hagerty said.Hagerty attributed his early lead in the race to his resume. He said voters saw his experience as an ambassador in the Trump administration and as economic development commissioner in Tennessee as a winning combination as the nation faces a pandemic and an economic crisis.He was optimistic that voters would rally around him after a bruising primary.“Republicans are going to come together, I have every confidence that they will," Hagerty said. “They certainly don’t want to see us move in the direction of socialism in this nation.”Hagerty's comments came minutes after two dozen Hagerty campaign staff members leaned over laptops and analyzed results in a hotel conference room in Gallatin on Thursday night. The team roared with approval as they pored over county results that showed Hagerty with a resounding early lead.Hagerty stayed upstairs in the hotel as the results came in.Sethi's party at the Coffee County Conference Center struck a lively tone – until discouraging results began streaming in on TV feeds.Former U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, who lost a bid for governor in 2010, told Sethi supporters he was on edge about the stakes of the election.“I’ve been involved in politics for 40 years,” Wamp said. “I’m as nervous tonight about this race as I ever was about any of my own races.” He spoke about the need to bring more diversity to the Republican Party, bringing in more candidates of color such as Nikki Haley, Tim Scott and Marco Rubio.“All due respect, we don’t need any more rich old men in the U.S. Senate,” Wamp said to cheers as early results began to come in.Despite a strong showing for a first-time candidate, Sethi was unable to overcome the president’s backing of his opponent. He was forced to thread a narrow needle of criticizing Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell while pledging support for Trump.The race began to draw national attention as the candidates and their allies exchanged negative ads in recent weeks. Hagerty, 60, sought to portray Sethi, 42, as a liberal due to his lack of past involvement in Republican politics and various ties to the medical community.Sethi, meanwhile, countered with attacks on Hagerty’s previous associations with moderate Republicans like Utah's U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, describing Hagerty as an establishment candidate who only backed Trump in 2016 after first supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, for whom Hagerty served as a delegate, and Rubio, R-Florida.After the primary, Hagerty went on to chair Trump's Victory Committee.While Hagerty led polling by double digits for nearly a year as he touted the president’s endorsement, Sethi gained momentum in early June, coinciding with both candidates’ launch of television ad campaigns. By early July, public polls in the race showed Hagerty narrowly leading by a few percentage points.Despite 15 Republicans on the ballot, the race largely centered on Hagerty and Sethi.This particular Tennessee GOP primary resulted in a significant divide within the party: Federal and state lawmakers sided with both candidates as the two campaigns called into question the other’s conservative credentials.Neither campaign focused much attention on specific policy issues, rather choosing to prove their support for Trump and echo his sentiments on hot-button topics: disavowing antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement, criticizing China for the COVID-19 pandemic and pledging to stand up to metaphorical liberal mobs.Sethi, whose parents emigrated to the United States from India, dared people to call him racist when he argued against illegal immigration, police brutality protests and support for Trump’s border wall.And although he is a medical doctor, Sethi repeatedly raised doubts about the severity of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He recently called for Dr. Anthony Fauci’s firing from the White House coronavirus task force while defending the use of hydroxychloroquine, a drug touted by Trump that other administration officials have said is not proven an effective treatment for COVID-19.Follow&nbsp;Natalie Allison&nbsp;on Twitter at @natalie_allison.Follow Joel Ebert &nbsp;on Twitter @joelebert29View Comments

Nashville TennesseanView CommentsNASHVILLE – Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty on Thursday after a bitter Tennessee primary battle that centered on support for President Donald Trump.The win comes after a rancorous final stretch of the race that saw high profile endorsements, attacks on the airwaves and in person.As of 8:15 p.m. CDT, the Associated Press had called the race for Hagerty, who had nearly 52% of the vote with just under half of precincts reporting.Hagerty, 60, emerged victorious from a crowded field of Republicans, including his closest competitor, Nashville...

Bill Hagerty wins Tennessee's bitter Republican US Senate primary

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS