GALLATIN, Tennessee — By a large margin, Tennessee Republicans elected Bill Hagerty their nominee in Thursday’s GOP primary to compete against a Democrat in November’s general election.
Hagerty and Sethi competed against one another to replace the retiring U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN).
As of press time Thursday night, Hagerty had 326,246 votes to opponent Manny Sethi’s 252,603 votes, a margin of 50 percent to 39 percent, according to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s website. Thirteen other Republican candidates trailed behind the two men.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), and U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03) flanked Hagerty as he delivered his victory speech at his campaign headquarters in Gallatin.
“I am looking forward to this fight, and there couldn’t be more at stake right now,” Hagerty said.
“We’ve got to stand up to the radicals in Washington that want to push us off a cliff into socialism. I look forward to fighting for the things that Tennessee values most.”
Hagerty said that, if elected, his top priorities include, among other things, confirming Constitutionalist judges, fighting for the Second Amendment, fighting for life, and standing up for law enforcement and the military.
Hagerty also said he wants to stand up to China.
“We all know that China unleashed this pandemic on the world. On our nation,” Hagerty said.
“We’ve had loved ones that have lost their lives. We have many more that have lost their jobs. The time has come to hold them to account. I look forward to doing just that. I know how to hit China where it hurts. I want to make ‘Made in the USA’ the theme of America again.”
Hagerty also said he and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone before Hagerty took to the stage to deliver his victory speech. As The Tennessee Star reported, Trump endorsed Hagerty’s candidacy several times.
Hagerty thanked his political team, his campaign volunteers, and his interns for helping him.
“They made over 2 million voter contacts,” Hagerty said.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Can anyone explain to me “WHY” the “IDIOTS” who call themselves “VOTERS”,
Will only vote for someone endorsed by the “Swamp Controlled Party”, that they claim to hate???????
Just read the comments they have made about their “past and present selections”, condemning every one of them,
“TOO STUPID” to understand that as long as they keep voting for those endorsed by the party, “NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE”.
And most are so Ignorant they don’t even know they had other options.
America’s problem is not the Government but in the Voting booth.
If brains were gunpowder, most couldn’t blow their nose.
Once again I have to choose the lesser of two evils. However there is a light at the end of the tunnel……good bye lamar.
one thing we can agree on. this guy is far better than any one the tennessee democratic party can put out there. we have become a nation of two parties. bolshevik liberals and rinos.
choose wisely.
Tennessee who could elect as conservative a Republican as possible instead will have a Mitt Romney clone and a low IQ mouthpiece for whatever AIPAC tells her to say. Sad state of affairs.
To all the so-called conservative voters, I’d like to say thank you for giving us yet another RINO. First you give us Mr. (I can’t make a decision so I leave it up to others) Bill Lee and now Bill Hagerty. Needs to be a cap on PAC money. The barrage of misleading negative ads run by Hagerty was downright annoying but somehow worked. Hagerty has been proven to be a liar on more than one occasion.
Now I patiently await for the next Tennessee Start article outlining who Hagerty really is so I can say I told you so.
Stewy, Hagerty will be a Freshman Senator. He will have to fall in line with the others if he hopes to gain support and money for re-election. As soon as Trump leaves office, if not before, Hagerty will plant his roots in the swamp and act just like the rest of them.
I’m honeslty sick of this two party system. Commies to the left of me, RINOS to the right…something’s got to change!
Couldn’t agree with you more
Oh cheer up Jonnie, the days of a centrist Lamar entrenching himself in office are gone. The Republican electorate in TN has moved too far right for that to happen again. In six years the fabulous Rep. Mark Green (Heritage-100%!) will have had eight years in office chomping at the bit to be a U. S. Senator. Bill Hagerty isn’t stupid. If conservatives make it clear to him that we are watching and waiting rather than crying in our beer about PACs and the shortcomings of the two party system we just might have ourselves a surprisingly conservative Senator. If not Hagerty will see a conservative movement in Tennessee uniting behind a well funded conservative candidate giving him yet another costly, hotly contested primary.
All he needs is the red plaid coat and he will be Lamar Alexander. If anyone really thinks this guy is anything but an establishment RINO, then you have paid attention at all. He is Lamar 2.0. You can almost see the puppet strings. The man was in the pocket of McCain, Romney, Jeb Bush, Bill Haslam and so many other deep state fake conservatives. I’m sickened that we finally had a chance to get rid of Alexander, but replaced him with a near perfect clone. You screwed up Tennessee.
Why do you say such a thing? Your candidate did not win. Lost big in fact becuase of his endorsements. Did Lamar have Senator’s Blackburn & Cotton endorse him? Did Lamar have Sean Hannity endorse him? Did Lamar have President Trump endorse him? Those endorsements make for a big, big difference. We are not out here on our own. They asked us to vote for him so we should also hold their feet to the fire over his performance. Who do we blame for Lamar being in office to start with? The Tennessee Republican Party and our gullibility. We are on much more solid ground. Now let’s get him headed to DC!! Hagerty 2020!!
Precisely the outcome I was so ardently looking for! After spending about $2 million to buy himself a seat in the U. S. Senate running as a “CONSERVATIVE-OUTSIDER” conservatives thankfully realized that Sethi was neither. Hopefully the over 11% defeat makes an impression on others that when it comes to high office conservatives want candidates with a conservative record rather than campaign conservatives.
Now that the election is over, for conservatives our job has just begun. Conservatism is a second language for Bill Hagerty so we have to speak slowly and make it clear to him that he can be a U. S. Senator for life if he just asks Marsha how to vote as bills come up in the Senate. If he asks his soulmate Mitt Romney, on the other hand, in six years conservatives will be ready to give him another grueling primary. Somehow he didn’t seem like he was having that much fun during this one.
Truth, Stuart. I am optimistic about Hagerty. Cotton and Blackburn will be his Senate mentors and all will be well. I am also hopeful that Governor Lee has learned a lesson from this blowout win. He needs move further to the right where his constituents are located or he will be returning to the private sector with Dr Sethi in 2 years. Conservatives have made a huge statement. And Alexander needs to see this as a referendum on what a failure he has become. Neither candidate wanted his endorsement. Buh bye, Lamar.
Buying? Manny wasn’t buying it Hagerty was. But I will support toe R over the D anytime because we can’t give this to Chuckie and his cronies. I do hope though that the people are more involved in this and make sure they hold our politicians accountable.
He got his money from McConnell who is going across the country buying primaries for establishment candidate’s. He doesn’t support our President and he certainly doesn’t want him to have a bunch of conservatives going against what he wants, He wants no one else that may join the freedom caucus. McConnell is a SNAKE.