Democrat Phil Bredesen has staked his campaign on strength with independents and crossover appeal with moderate Republicans, hoping the goodwill lingering from two popular terms as governor can build a winning coalition in a state where Trump remains well-liked. "
But Blackburn said in a Tuesday morning interview with Fox News that she was excited about momentum for her campaign, and that the state has changed since Bredesen was last elected. In a show of support, the senator greeted Trump at the airport in Nashville and is appearing at the rally and fundraiser.
Democrats are surprisingly upbeat about their position in Tennessee’s Senate race. Republicans hope President Donald Trump’s visit to Nashville on Tuesday will change that.
Democrat Phil Bredesen has staked his campaign on strength with independents and crossover appeal with moderate Republicans, hoping the goodwill lingering from two popular terms as governor can build a winning coalition in a state where Trump remains well-liked. But GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Republican allies want to blunt that strategy by painting Bredesen as a centrist in name only who, despite his rhetoric, will stand in the president’s way when it matters.
That effort brought Trump to Nashville on Tuesday, where he hosted a private evening fundraiser with Blackburn and will feature her at one of his signature campaign rallies.
“Who better to say it than the president himself?” said Scott Golden, the chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. Golden added: “The first vote that Phil Bredesen will take will be to empower Chuck Schumer, will be to scuttle any Donald Trump Supreme Court nominee.”
Tennessee hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1990, and Trump won it by 26 points in 2016. But Bredesen won every county in his landslide victory in 2006, and his entrance put the race in play. Trump is more popular in Tennessee than he is nationwide – a recent Vanderbilt University poll showed his approval at 53 percent, with just 44 percent of voters disapproving of his job performance.
But in that same poll, two-thirds of voters had a favorable opinion of Bredesen, including a large chunk of independents and more than half of Republicans. Forty-nine percent of voters had a favorable view of Blackburn.
“[Trump’s] popular here, but Tennesseans also know the work of Phil Bredesen,” said Gary Bynum, chairman of the Democratic Party in Davidson County, which includes Nashville.
“The president, that’s not going to matter,” Bynum said. “What he’s doing is more of a campaign for himself, in my opinion, than for [Blackburn]. At the end of the day, Trump’s about Trump."
But Blackburn said in a Tuesday morning interview with Fox News that she was excited about momentum for her campaign, and that the state has changed since Bredesen was last elected.
“We are a red state, and when that blue wave comes to Tennessee this year – if there is a blue wave – then it is going to run into what I call the great red wall,” she said.
Democrats have expected an onslaught from Trump and national Republicans in this race. Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority in the upper chamber, and Tennessee is one of just a handful of Democratic pick-up opportunities. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently told POLITICO the Senate was “certainly in play.”
Meanwhile, Republicans have had issues in the race. Sen. Bob Corker has frustrated Republicans with positive comments about Bredesen, and he weighed reversing his retirement earlier this year amid concerns from some about Blackburn’s campaign.
But Corker ultimately decided against re-entering the race, and Corker and Trump have avoided public disagreements recently. In a show of support, the senator greeted Trump at the airport in Nashville and is appearing at the rally and fundraiser.
The once-popular Corker’s approval ratings tumbled last year amid quarrels with Trump, and Bredesen has worked hard to avoid conflict with the president. He spent the morning before Trump’s rally visiting the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and his campaign said he would spend Wednesday campaigning in rural areas in the western portion of the state.
On Facebook and Twitter, Bredesen’s campaign promoted an ad from March in which he says straight to the camera, “I’m not running against Donald Trump.”
“There’s a lot of things I don’t personally like about Donald Trump, but he’s the president of the United States and if he has an idea and is pushing something that I think are good for the people of Tennessee, I’m going to be for it, doesn’t matter where it came from,” Bredesen said.
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