Trump visit shows importance of Tennessee race
President Donald Trump is having a rally this evening in Johnson City to throw his support behind candidate Marsha Blackburn as Republicans seek all the help they can get in the Senate.
Last week’s Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, which ended in an agreement for the FBI to investigate decades-old sexual assault allegations, underscored the importance of the GOP’s control of the Senate and heightened the importance of the Tennessee Senate race, which pits Blackburn against Democrat Phil Bredesen.
The Senate has the confirmation vote for Supreme Court nominees and, possibly enticingly for Democrats, impeachment hearings for Trump if the special council’s Russian investigation were to come to that.
Currently, Republicans have a
51-49 lead in the Senate with the tie-breaking vote belonging to Vice President Mike Pence. It is widely believed the Republican’s current majority in the House is in jeopardy as well.
Thus, Republicans can hardly let Tennessee go, and Trump and company want as many Republicans to vote in the general election as possible.
“I think the significance is we need to have a strong, Republican voter turnout, and if you take something like that for granted, it would be a mistake,” said Mike Ragsdale, former Knox County mayor-turned Republican strategist.
In that vein, Ragsdale said, the importance of Trump’s visit isn’t the dollar amount raised for Blackburn or even about swaying undecided voters.
“It’s about getting turnout,” he said.
The three counties that contain portions of Johnson City — Washington, Carter and Sullivan — voted for Trump by a margin of 43, 64 and 55 points, respectively. Eighty percent of votes cast in Carter County were for Trump.
But East Tennessee historically has been more complicated than that. This portion of the state has been red longer than the rest, since before the Civil War, but its leaders, particularly its recent batch of statewide leaders, have been moderates.
Sens. Howard Baker Jr., Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker all hail from East Tennessee, as does outgoing Gov. Bill Haslam.
It’s not unreasonable to think this side of the state could need some reminding from President Trump about how they should vote in November.
While a Democrat governor, Bredesen was seen by many as a moderate. He’s running his Senate campaign in this vein, although Blackburn, Trump and the GOP are striking back, saying it’s clear Bredesen will vote with Democrats regardless of what he’s saying while on the campaign trail.
“Marsha needs to appeal to the moderates over here,” Knoxville politico Susan Richardson Williams said Friday.
“There are some East Tennessee Republicans supporting Bredesen and it’s important to get the message to them that a vote for Bredesen may elect Chuck Schumer as the [Senate Majority] Leader, Elizabeth Warren as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and Diane Feinstein [as the] Chairman of Judiciary Committee. Trump can deliver that message.”
Rumors had swirled in Republican circles for weeks that Trump would make an East Tennessee appearance, but some of that was quieted when Vice President Pence came to Knoxville for the CPAC/365 event.
Not to be outdone, the president’s team announced last week he’d be coming, too, just not to Knoxville. Instead, he chose Johnson City, roughly 100 miles to the northeast.
Johnson City hasn’t hosted a sitting president since Gerald Ford visited in 1976. Before that, it was Richard Nixon in 1970.
“It’s a rare and special occasion for a sitting president to visit our community,” said Pete Peterson, Johnson City manager said in an emailed statement. “We are gearing up for our sesquicentennial in 2019, so this an appropriately significant and historic event to lead us into our 150th birthday year.”
Bredesen and Blackburn were originally scheduled for a debate in Chattanooga today, but the Blackburn declined the invitation earlier this month.
Bredesen still is coming and will host a “Choose Chattanooga Ideas Forum” at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center at 6 p.m.
He will answer questions from the audience and social media that are tagged with #ChooseChattanooga. The campaign’s Facebook page will stream the forum live.
Former state Sen. and former Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman, Roy Herron, said Blackburn is “snubbing” Chattanoogans.
“Congresswoman Blackburn is snubbing the people of Chattanooga who invited her to debate Gov. Bredesen [Monday],” he said. “Instead, she is choosing to hobnob with out-ofstate fat cats coming from all over the country to the event with the President.”