U.S. Senate candidate and former Tennesee Gov. Phil Bredesen's announcement about Chuck Schumer is his latest effort to show independence from national Democrats. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Elections Bredesen won't back Schumer as Democratic leader The Democratic Senate nominee in battleground Tennessee vowed at a debate that he won't support Chuck Schumer for Senate leader.

Tennessee Democrat Phil Bredesen said at a debate Tuesday that if he is elected to the Senate, he would not back Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to continue as Democrats' leader.

Bredesen made the announcement during the opening statements of his first debate with the Republican nominee, Rep. Marsha Blackburn. Bredesen said Washington had become "hyperpartisan" and blamed current leadership in both parties.


"You've heard a lot recently of this campaign about me, about these crazy ideas about if somehow I'm elected and go to Washington, suddenly I'm going to turn my back on a whole lifetime of thinking for myself and being independent and suddenly become some kind of a political lackey," Bredesen said. "That's not going to happen for a bunch of reasons. One of them is that I think a lot of the problem in Washington is with the leadership that we have there now. Whether it be [Speaker Paul] Ryan or [Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi or [Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell or Schumer, they're not doing the job.

"We need to get new leadership. I can tell you right now that if I'm elected, and when I'm elected and go to Washington, I am not going to be voting for Chuck Schumer," Bredesen said.

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It's the latest effort Bredesen has made to show independence from national Democrats while running in solid-red Tennessee, which President Donald Trump carried by 26 percentage points in 2016. Bredesen has also played down his party's chances of winning the Senate majority in the fall, to try to keep crossover voters in his camp.

But the former governor's pledge to vote against Schumer is his largest break from the Democratic Party thus far. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is the only other Democratic battleground Senate candidate who has pledged to vote against the party's leader.

The pledge is functionally useless — unlike in the House, where the speaker is chosen by a majority of the chamber in a floor vote, Senate party leaders are chosen by a majority in a private caucus vote. While there might be enough Democratic House candidates to deny Pelosi the 218 votes she needs to become speaker again, there is virtually no chance of Schumer being dethroned by the Democratic Caucus after the election.

Blackburn brushed off Bredesen's vow to vote against Schumer, repeatedly attacking the Democrat as "bought and paid for" by the Senate minority leader. Majority Forward, a nonprofit organization aligned with Schumer, has spent more than $3.5 million on ads in the Tennessee race so far, according to the Federal Election Commission. The group has even more ads reserved for this fall.

"We know he will vote with Chuck Schumer because his vote is already bought and paid for, his campaign is bought and paid for by Chuck Schumer," Blackburn said.

"I do think we all know that Phil had a choice. He could have run as a Republican or independent. Probably didn't want to do that. He's running as a Democrat so he will be with Chuck Schumer if he were to go to Washington," she continued.