With Bob Corker out of the running, Tennessee Senate race now shifts focus to general election

WASHINGTON – Sen. Bob Corker’s announcement that he will stand by his earlier decision and retire at the end of the year means for all practical purposes that Marsha Blackburn will be the Republican nominee to succeed him.

Corker’s decision, announced Tuesday, allows the GOP to avoid what would have been a bruising primary and will enable Blackburn, an eight-term congresswoman from Brentwood, to look ahead and start focusing on what is expected to be a close, contentious contest with Democrat Phil Bredesen in November.

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“There are other candidates on the ballot, but you’ll probably see a general election tone start pretty quickly,” said Tom Ingram, a political operative who was one of Corker’s adviser’s during his first Senate campaign.

In Blackburn’s favor, “Tennessee is a very conservative Republican state now,” Ingram said. “In (Bredesen’s) favor, as mayor and governor, he was not terribly partisan and developed a lot of Republican support in both positions. We’ll just have to see how that plays out.”

Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced last September that he would not run for a third term. But he has spent the past several weeks mulling over a possible return to the race at the urging of some establishment Republicans who feared that the party could end up losing the seat to Bredesen, who served two terms each as Nashville mayor and governor.

Corker’s office said Tuesday he was standing by his earlier decision to retire.

“Over the past several months, Sen. Corker has been encouraged by people across Tennessee and in the Senate to reconsider his decision not to seek re-election,” his chief of staff, Todd Womack, said in a statement.

“Based on the outpouring of support, we spent the last few days doing our due diligence and a clear path for re-election was laid out. However, at the end of the day, the senator believes he made the right decision in September and will be leaving the Senate when his term expires at the end of 2018.”

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When Corker first ran for Senate in 2006, “he told Tennesseans that he couldn’t imagine serving for more than two terms because he has always been drawn to the citizen legislator model and believes public service should be missional,” Womack said. “This has been the greatest privilege of his life, and he is forever grateful to the people of the Volunteer State for the opportunity to serve our state and country.”

Blackburn urges unified GOP

Blackburn quickly issued her own statement in which she thanked Corker "for his dedicated service on behalf of Tennessee families."

"Now, we can unify the Republican party and focus on defeating Democrat Phil Bredesen in November," she said. "As we continue to take our campaign to every corner of the state, I'm looking forward to listening to Tennesseans' families and sharing my ideas on how we can get the United States Senate back to work and pass President Trump’s agenda."

Bredesen’s campaign said he’s “glad to see the race taking shape and he remains focused on running a 95-county campaign to win in November.”

“The contrast between candidates is now clear,” said his spokeswoman, Alyssa Hansen. “Tennessee voters can pick someone who caused gridlock in Washington over the past 15 years — or they can hire someone who has a proven track record of working across the aisle to get things done for all Tennesseans.”

A general election campaign underway

In another sign that both parties already are looking ahead to November, national Democrats argued that the mere fact that some Republicans wanted Corker back in the race showed that Blackburn is a weak candidate.

“Republicans raised concerns over Congresswoman Blackburn because they know she is out of touch with Tennessee," said David Bergstein, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "Their public display of anxiety has not only underscored her vulnerabilities but revealed a point of agreement between Democrats and Republicans: Congresswoman Blackburn is not fit to represent Tennessee in the U.S. Senate.”

The Corker statement did not say whether he would endorse Blackburn in the primary. “The senator does not typically get involved in primaries but has always planned to support the nominee,” a Corker aide said.

The Club for Growth PAC, a conservative group that concentrates on cutting taxes and other economic issues, has endorsed Blackburn and urged Corker to also get behind the congresswoman.

“If Sen. Corker was reassessing this race because he was worried about the Democrat winning, then we urge him to immediately endorse Marsha so that the party can unify behind one candidate,” said David McIntosh, the group’s president. “There is no easier way to make sure that this seat stays in Republican hands than to avoid a bloody primary.”

General election concerns for some Republicans

The fear that Blackburn could win the primary but lose the general election is what prompted some Republicans to urge Corker to get back into the race. Those concerns were bolstered by a recent poll that showed Blackburn trailing Bredesen by two points.

Clearly angered by the GOP naysayers, Blackburn’s camp tried to shoot down the speculation that she could lose in November.

When word leaked that Corker was reconsidering his decision to retire, Blackburn’s campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Bozek, fired off a statement saying that anyone who thinks the congresswoman can’t win is “just a plain sexist pig."

The Blackburn campaign also rolled out endorsements from 18 Republican state senators.

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Ingram, who had been among those urging Corker to reconsider, said Corker and his team would have been fully committed to the race if he had decided to re-enter.

“He was going to be able to raise all of the money he needed, which would increase the money everybody else would have to raise, and with the prospect of spending most of it in the primary,” Ingram said. “And if he had gotten in, the mantle of incumbency would have been bestowed upon him again, which has pluses and minuses — but more pluses than minuses.”

A big question mark hanging over the race was whether Trump, who remains popular in Tennessee, would have gotten involved in the primary.

Corker has been both a defender and critic of the president. The two feuded publicly for several weeks last fall but, with the help of first daughter Ivanka Trump, have since repaired their relationship.

Blackburn, on the other hand, has been a consistent and vocal supporter of the president and was seen entering and leaving the White House several times while Corker was reconsidering his retirement.

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However, a Republican source familiar with conversations with the White House said Trump was not going to publicly endorse Blackburn if Corker had gotten in the race. Most likely, the president would have remained neutral in the GOP primary, the person said.

But in the end, Corker decided that his decision to retire was the right one.

“In the process of reconsidering, he realized what he was struggling with was missing public service more than missing the Senate,” Ingram said. “And while he has a competitive urge, which I believe would have resulted in victory, he worried that it would be a very uncomfortable campaign in which he might not feel pride at the end.”