United States Senate election in Tennessee, 2014

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United States Senate election in Tennessee, 2014
← 2008 November 4, 2014 2020 →
  LamarAlexander.jpg No image.svg
Nominee Lamar Alexander Gordon Ball
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 849,629 437,251
Percentage 61.9% 31.8%
300px
County results
U.S. senator before election

Lamar Alexander
Republican

 Elected U.S. Senator

Lamar Alexander
Republican
Elections in Tennessee
Seal of Tennessee.svg
This box:

The 2014 United States Senate election in Tennessee took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate for the State of Tennessee. Incumbent Republican Senator Lamar Alexander was re-elected to a third term in office.

Background

Alexander was re-elected with 65% of the vote in 2008. Alexander stepped down from his leadership role as Republican Conference Chairman of the United States Senate in 2011, but announced that he would seek re-election to a third term.[1]

Republican primary

Although Alexander was initially thought to be vulnerable to a primary challenge from the right, he worked to avoid this and ultimately did not face a high-profile challenger. He declared his intention to run early, quickly won the endorsement of Governor Bill Haslam, every living former Tennessee Republican Party Chairman and the state's entire Republican congressional delegation (except scandal-hit Scott DesJarlais). He also raised a large amount of money and worked to avoid the mistakes of ousted Senators Bob Bennett and Richard Lugar by trying to stay in touch with his constituents, especially in East Tennessee. Moreover, out-of-state conservative organizations such as the Senate Conservatives Fund made little effort to defeat Alexander.[2]

During his re-election campaign in 2008, Alexander faced no opponents in the Republican primary.[3] As early as July 2013, it was obvious that the same would not be true in 2014. The weekend of July 20, 2013, a rally was held in Smyrna in opposition to Alexander. Activists attending the event included Williamson County GOP leader Kevin Kookogey.[4] By mid-August, Triton Polling released a poll showing Alexander trailing "a generic conservative" by five points.[5] But no "generic conservative" seemed to want to step up. In search of a candidate, a "Beat Lamar" PAC held a forum and invited Kookogey, Knox County mayor Tim Burchett, and Alexander's only formal opponent at the time, Brenda Lenard of Knoxville.[6]

On August 20, 2013, State Representative Joe Carr announced his candidacy. He had previously been opposing Scott Desjarlais in the race for Tennessee's 4th congressional district, but swapped races under public pressure.[7] Kookogey soon dropped out of the race.[8] Four candidates were then vetted in September by the "Coalition for a Constitutional Senate": Carr, truck driver Jerry Davis, business owner John McDaniel, and electrician Danny Page.[9] The coalition ultimately endorsed Carr with 59% of the vote,[10][11] but some felt that Carr's nomination was coerced by the leaders of the Beat Lamar PAC.[12][13] Independent candidate Danny Page was especially vocal on that issue.[14]

Entering the race late was George Flinn, a radiologist from Memphis who had run for Congress against Steve Cohen in 2012.[15] There was some speculation that Flinn was a spoiler deployed by Alexander to steal Tea Party votes from Carr.[15]

In the primary's final stretch Carr was endorsed by Sarah Palin,[16] but he did not receive much other support from outside of Tennessee, failing to receive endorsements from the Senate Conservatives Fund[17] or the Club for Growth.[18]

Ultimately, Alexander won the primary, though he recorded the lowest winning percentage (49.7%) and lowest margin of victory (9.2 points) ever in a primary for a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee. Carr won a larger percentage of the vote (40.5%) than the previous 11 challengers to sitting Republican U.S. Senators in Tennessee history combined (40.3%).[19]

Candidates

Declared

Withdrew

  • Danny Page, electrician (running as an Independent)[24][25]

Declined

Endorsements

Polling

Poll source Date(s)
administered		 Sample
size		 Margin of
error		 Lamar
Alexander		 Joe
Carr		 George
Flinn		 Brenda
Lenard		 Danny
Page		 Other Undecided
Red Racing Horses & PMI inc. July 28–30, 2014 400 ± 5% 41% 29% 5% — — 5% 20%
North Star Opinion Research* July 27–29, 2014 600 ± 4% 53% 24% — 1% 1% 5% 16%
North Star Opinion Research* July 20–22, 2014 600 ± 4% 53% 21% — — — 9% 15%
Tea Party Nation/Triton July 10–11, 2014 1,099 ± 2.9% 43% 36% — — — — 21%
Tea Party Nation/Triton May 22, 2014 1,100 ± ? 44% 20% — — — 9% 27%
North Star Opinion Research* May 12–14, 2014 600 ± 4% 56% 14% — 1% 1% — 22%
North Star Opinion Research* February 3–6, 2014 600 ± 4% 62% 17% — 2% 1% — 18%
MTSU January 23–26, 2014  ? ± ? 40% 7% — — — 4% 49%
Public Policy Polling^ December 2–3, 2013 391 ± 5% 46% 40% — — — — 14%
North Star Opinion Research* August 19–22, 2013 600 ± 4% 64% 22% — — — — 14%
69% — — 16% — — 15%
Poll source Date(s)
administered		 Sample
size		 Margin of
error		 Lamar
Alexander		 Conservative
challenger		 Undecided
Triton Polling August 15–16, 2013 680 ± 3.7% 44.9% 49.5% 5.6%
  • * Internal poll for Lamar Alexander campaign
  • ^ Internal Poll for Terry Adams campaign

Results

Republican primary results[42]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Lamar Alexander 331,705 49.65
Republican Joe Carr 271,324 40.61
Republican George Shea Flinn 34,668 5.19
Republican Christian Agnew 11,320 1.69
Republican Brenda S. Lenard 7,908 1.18
Republican John D. King 7,748 1.16
Republican Erin Kent Magee 3,366 0.50
Total votes 668,039 100

Democratic primary

Declared

  • Terry Adams, attorney[43]
  • Gordon Ball, attorney[44]
  • Larry Crim, CEO of Christian Counseling Centers of America, Inc.[45]
  • Gary Gene Davis, perennial candidate[20]

Withdrew

  • Jacob Maurer, high school educator and write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2012[20][46]

Declined

Endorsements

Results

Democratic primary results[42]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Gordon Ball 87,829 36.45
Democratic Terry Adams 85,794 35.61
Democratic Gary Gene Davis 42,549 17.66
Democratic Larry Crim 24,777 10.28
Total votes 240,949 100

General election

Candidates

Endorsements

Debates

The first was held in Bolivar, Tennessee and attended by Democrats Gordon Ball and Terry Adams, Republican George Flinn, and independents Ed Gauthier and Danny Page. The attendees criticized Alexander and Carr for not attending.[62][63]

The second was a "candidates' forum" after the primary in Cookeville on October 16. Only Republican nominee Lamar Alexander and Democrat nominee Gordon Ball were allowed to participate.[64]

The third debate was on October 23 at a Sheraton Hotel across from the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. The nominees for the Democratic Party (Gordon Ball), Libertarian Party (Joshua James), Green Party (Martin Pleasant), and Constitution Party (Joe Wilmoth) were all in attendance as well as independents Tom Emerson, Ed Gauthier, and Danny Page.[65] The moderator was blogger Tom Humphrey of the blog "Humphrey on the Hill". The candidates discussed a number of issues, including abortion, The Islamic State, Common Core education standards, and global warming, but the issue that stuck most with the media was marijuana. There was a general consensus among the seven candidates in attendance that the federal government should not be involved in the issue, and that authority on marijuana should be reserved to the states and people.[66] Incumbent Senator Lamar Alexander declined to participate in the debate, and was mocked by Democrat Gordon Ball as being "chicken". Alexander was speaking in front of various groups in Nashville and Murfreesboro that day.[65]

The fourth and fifth debates were held in Johnson City and Crossville, and featured candidates Gordon Ball and Danny Page. Senator Alexander was invited, but attended neither.[67][68]

Campaign

In September, an education summit was held in Nashville by Governor Bill Haslam. A protest of the summit (which was largely a protest of the "Common Core" standards) was attended by Democrat Gordon Ball and independent Danny Page.[69]

In late September, eleven members of the Tennessee General Assembly who had backed Joe Carr in the primaries announced they would back Alexander in the general election, saying, "We feel that it is vitally important to the country that we stand together and support replacing the liberal agenda that is now in control of the United States Senate". Carr himself abstained from the endorsement.[56]

Polling

Poll source Date(s)
administered		 Sample
size		 Margin of
error		 Lamar
Alexander (R)		 Gordon
Ball (D)		 Other Undecided
CBS News/NYT/YouGov October 16–23, 2014 974 ± 5% 55% 33% 2% 10%
CBS News/NYT/YouGov September 20–October 1, 2014 1,007 ± 4% 53% 32% 2% 12%
CBS News/NYT/YouGov August 18–September 2, 2014 1,056 ± 4% 47% 32% 10% 11%
Rasmussen Reports August 11–12, 2014 750 ± 4% 47% 32% 10% 12%
CBS News/New York Times July 5–24, 2014 1,465 ± 5.4% 48% 33% 14% 5%
Rasmussen Reports April 29–30, 2014 750 ± 4% 51% 25% 10% 15%

Results

General Election Results [70]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Lamar Alexander 849,629 61.89
Democratic Gordon Ball 437,251 31.85
Constitution Joe Wilmoth 36,063 2.63
Green Martin Pleasant 12,536 0.91
Independent Tom Emerson, Jr. 11,149 0.81
Independent Danny Page 7,710 0.56
Independent Rick Tyler 5,753 0.42
Independent Joshua James 5,672 0.41
Independent Bartholomew J. Phillips 2,380 0.17
Independent Edmund L. Gauthier 2,311 0.17
Independent Eric Schechter 1,668 0.12
Independent Choudhury Salekin 784 0.06
Total votes 1,372,906 100

See also

References

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External links

Official campaign websites
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  9. ↑ http://constitutionalsenate.com/potential-challengers/
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  11. ↑ http://constitutionalsenate.com/2013/09/30/coalition-convention-results-joe-carr-is-in/#comments
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  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 51.2 Adams challenges fellow Democrat Ball to debate in U.S. Senate primary race Knox News, 6 July 2014
  52. ↑ 52.00 52.01 52.02 52.03 52.04 52.05 52.06 52.07 52.08 52.09 52.10 TN-SEN: Meet Terry Adams, Democratic Challenger to Sen. Lamar Alexander - Mar 12 Fundraiser (Video) Daily-KOS, 7 March 2014
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