Posted on 07/24/2020 7:25:04 PM PDT by RandFan
(CNN) President Donald Trump's endorsed candidate in the US Senate race in Tennessee has suddenly found himself in an increasingly competitive primary fight that has divided top Republicans and prompted anger over one GOP senator's tactics.
Bill Hagerty was expected to coast to his party's nomination after the President endorsed him a year ago. But with less than two weeks to go before the Republican primary election, Trump's former US ambassador to Japan is facing a fierce challenge marked by a late infusion of ad spending, high-profile endorsements and rallies crisscrossing the state.
Dr. Manny Sethi and Hagerty traded attacks in separate phone interviews on Thursday, directly aiming their messages at the Republicans who will decide the August 6 primary.
Hagerty depicted Sethi, an orthopedic trauma surgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, as a "phony conservative" who supported Trump only when it was "convenient." Sethi fired back that Hagerty, who founded a private equity firm, is a "Washington insider" and a "Mitt Romney Republican."
Sethi's campaign has been bolstered by the support of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who appears in an ad for the Protect Freedom PAC, which has dropped more than $800,000 in the race -- more than any other outside group, according to Kantar's Campaign Media Analysis Group.
"The race was a bit of a sleeper," said Paul, who went to medical school with Sethi's medical partner and believes the candidate will "stand up when leadership wants to spend too much money."
"Really in the last couple of weeks, things have really sprung his direction," Paul added.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
The Senate could use any number of Senators willing to buck China Ditch.
RINO Lamar Alexander is not happy with Rand (see article).
LA is probably against anyone who doesn’t wear plaid shirts...
I read an article or two in the last week about this growing dust-up.
Tennessee seems to have turned into AZ.
Internal factions within the GOP combined with infiltrators working for Pelosi.
The fact that CNN seems to be in the soup says this is well planned by the DNC
I fear its another case of Trump being told to endorse some idiot.
If Rand and Freedom PAC are spending nearly a million to help this doctor against the former ambassador then you know something is up and if RINO Lamar is complaining you know something is definitely up!
Tennessee voter here. Voted for Sethi. Hagerty has been airing a lot of last-minute, highly deceptive and disingenuous ads slamming Sethi. If Hagerty wins, he hasn’t endeared himself to a lot of people because of his less than truthful, less than honorable ad campaign.
Amen to that my friend.
Manish Kumar Sethi is about as typical an Indian a name as you'll find. Indians and their American born kids, Hindu or Christian (sizable population, especially of the latter lives along the western coast and the state of Kerala), tend to be among the best educated and most successful immigrants and first gen Americans we have.
This fellow's a trauma surgeon born in Cleveland, OH and raised in Tennessee running against someone who looks and sounds like a D.C. RINO swamp creature. Trump endorsed the latter a year ago and that shouldn't weigh too much in Tennessee voters' minds. Rand Paul's endorsement and support, on the other hand, might. Should be interesting.
More fake news. Manny Sethi seems to have joined the Never Trump faction if his campaign staff and advisors are any indication of where he stands. That’s not a conservative position in today’s environment.
Anything that p*sses Lamar Alexander off is good to me. That guy has voted for every spending bill known to man for 20 odd years
If this doctor is “no” to more spending then he will attract support.
I can see why its turned into a race ... TN Republicans are sick of RINO’s!
One of the very few downsides to having a non-political man of the people such as Donald Trump as President. He is not a political junkie as are so many here on FreeRepublic and the listeners of programs such a Rush. Hannity, Levin, etc...
Trump is a Patriotic American businessman with fantastic policy instincts but when it comes to the nitty-gritty minutia of specific candidates at the state level he must rely upon advice and recommendations. Sometimes they are good. Sometimes not.
He is told who to endorse by Jared Kushner who is a liberal.
Perhaps, but, there is no concrete proof this is so. Just conjecture.
He is receiving advice from Senator McConnell. His primary goal at the Congressional level is to maintain control of the Senate. Otherwise, our vote for him in November is seriously diminished if the dems control both houses of Congress.
So, his question regarding this is, who has the best chance of winning a seat for the Republicans.
Not, who is the most ideological Conservative?
If someone checks both blocks, GREAT! But, for President Trump, the question of greater importance is, which Republicans can win and help keep control or gain control.
This is the pragmatism of a Business Man. Even if it irritates some ideological people.
Early on I was thinking that TN couldn’t go wrong with either Sethi or Hagerty, or even Flinn (who has raised and spent more money than Sethi but it seems to be dumb money).
Commercial on tonight showed Sethi’s wife admitting that she donated $50 to Mitt Romney but Hagerty donated what was it, $100K to Romney??
Hagerty has shown footage of Sethi defending Obamacare but Sethi has shown a report where he attacked it.
Hagerty wants to illegalize flag burning - he didn’t get into how he would do that.
Sethi is nominally Caucasian; his commercials have acknowledged that Caucasians can’t defend themselves without being called racists.
Josh Gapp (running for CD 1) showed a Hagerty supporter and a Sethi supporter both supporting him for the US House...clever!
Dr. Manny has been campaigning hard while Hagerty has been a no-show at many events. Hagerty finally showed up here for an event a couple of weeks ago and there were around 20 people there. Most seemed underwhelmed, as I was.
He took it for granted TN would elect him just because Trump endorsed him and found out too late things don't work that way. So he went on the attack. That kind of campaigning doesn't go over well in TN.
Have you noticed how often the candidate President Trump endorses is challenged from the right? He’s had a very mixed record on endorsements.
It’s a mixed record.
Some of them i’m thankful he’s endorsed other times I’m very underwhelmed.
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