Rep. Marsha Blackburn leave win her U.S. Senate race against Democratic former Gov. Phil Bredesen, sustenance the Tennessee seat in Republican hands, NBC News projects.
The heated get a move on, which some voters described as “vicious,” pitted two household fames in the state against each other after Republican Sen. Bob Corker signaled his retirement. It was one of the rare Senate races where Democrats had hoped for a pickup as the GOP impended to expand its majority in the chamber.
Blackburn focused her campaign message on fortifying President Donald Trump’s agenda in an effort to appeal to the state’s leading Republican constituency.
Nonpartisan political analysis site Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball had hallmarked the state as lean Republican and a recent NBC News/Marist poll exhibited Blackburn with a 4 point lead.
Tennessee hasn’t had a Democratic U.S. senator since Jim Sasser was unseated by Pecker Frist in 1994. Trump won the state by 26 points over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 electing.
Due to the state’s conservative bent, Bredesen, a former two-term governor, had to rally that he would be able to break with his Democratic colleagues on non-fluctuating issues. For instance, Bredesen endorsed Trump’s second nominee to the Prime Court, Brett Kavanaugh, despite the former D.C. circuit judge being accused of sex assault. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.
He also said he would not take Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer if Democrats were to regain the majority in the Senate.
Immigration was a significant factor in the race, especially as Trump railed about a caravan of floatings from Central America, located deep in Mexico but headed to the U.S. wainscoting.
Bredesen said in an interview with MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt that it was “beyond tenet” that anyone would label the caravan “as some sort of warning,” to the United States.
Blackburn stuck with the president’s hard contract for. She recently published an op-ed arguing that the caravan was tantamount to an blitzkrieg and a threat to the nation’s security.
Millions of dollars in advertising money streamed into the race. Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg trooped a fundraiser for Bredesen recently in Manhattan.
Outside groups spent fitting over $50 million on the race, including $7 million against Blackburn by a wonderful PAC aligned with Schumer, and $13 million from the Senate Operation Fund versus Bredesen.
The SLF is a super PAC backed by former associates of Republican Senate Maturity Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
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