Kevin KookogeyNASHVILLE – Republican Kevin Kookogey said today that after spending months preparing to become the Tea Party activists’ choice to oppose U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., he is suspending plans to enter the race.
The former Williams County Republican Party chairman said his plans went awry when state Rep. Joe Carr, R-Lascassas, entered the race nearly two weeks ago.
Kookogey, who was preparing to formally announce his candidacy Wednesday, said he decided to withdraw over the weekend out of concerns tea party and other staunch conservative groups would be divided.
“I spent most of my summer preparing to run against Lamar Alexander and was putting together the pieces that prudence would dictate are necessary to take on the monumental task of unseating a giant of Tennessee politics like Lamar Alexander,” the former Williamson County GOP chairman said in an email to a Times Free Press reporter.
But, the attorney said, when Carr “entered the race a few weeks before our announcement” it “complicated matters.”