Coupled with strong support among early voters, the active support and endorsement from President Donald Trump and his family was pivotal to multi-millionaire businessman Bill Hagerty’s capture Tuesday night of the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Tennessee.
With near-final returns in, Hagerty — who until recently served as Trump’s ambassador to Japan — defeated Nashville surgeon Manny Sethi by 53% to 38% of the vote.
There were little issue differences between Hagerty and Sethi and both ran as Trump-style conservatives — far to the right of retiring moderate GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander.
But Hagerty had a distinct advantage in having the backing of Trump himself. As soon as Hagerty returned from Japan and before he became a candidate, he had the president’s blessing.
“He was a top fundraiser for Trump and, after that ‘Access Hollywood’ tape came out [in which Trump used coarse language about women] and many others headed for the high grass, Bill stayed with him,” said one former GOP officeholder from the Volunteer State. “Trump values loyalty and never forgot it.”
The president held two conference calls with supporters on Hagerty’s behalf. In addition, the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., campaigned in person for Hagerty.
Also giving early support to Hagerty were former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Tennessee’s junior Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee.
The son of Indian immigrants, Sethi had the backing of Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky. He began hitting hard at Hagerty over his role as national finance chairman of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2008 and as an early supporter of Jeb Bush for president in 2016 before signing on with Trump.
He also slammed Hagerty for making a $1000 donation to Democrat presidential nominee and Tennessee native Al Gore. Hagerty countered that he gave the same amount to George W. Bush in 2000 and called Trump enemy Romney “weak-kneed.”
Polls showed that Sethi’s attacks on Hagerty as an “establishment” Republican, which began last month, were cutting into Hagerty’s early lead in the polls and that the race was tightening.
But these attacks came after a good chunk of Republicans had already voted. According to Tennessee’s secretary of state, twice as many voters went to the polls during the 14-day early voting period for the Aug. 6 primary than did during the early voting period for the August 2016 primary election.
Among Republicans, early voting increased 98%, from 178,919 early votes cast in 2016 to 354,600 this year.
With the succession of conservative firebrand Blackburn to the “establishment” favorite GOP Sen. Bob Corker two years ago, Hagerty’s likely election to the seat of Alexander makes a strong case that the Republican Party in Tennessee is becoming a very conservative one.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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