Republican Senate hopeful Marsha Blackburn answers questions during a campaign stop Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Franklin, Tenn. Wednesday is the first day of Tennessee’s early voting. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)FRANKLIN, Tenn. – Republican Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Phil Bredesen spent the first day of early voting Wednesday firing up their respective home bases as Tennessee’s knock-down, drag out U.S. Senate contest enters its final weeks.
“I will tell you right now that Tennessee is not going to be the state to hand the U.S. Senate to the Democrats,” Blackburn, a congress member, told some 150 supporters at an event in Franklin where she appeared with Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Lee.
Former governor and Nashville mayor Bredesen, meanwhile, spoke before a similar-size crowd in Nashville, telling them “this race for me is a really tight race. It’s going to come down to who turns out to vote. It’s that close, and that’s what we always kind of thought it would be.”
Bredesen joked about last week’s surprise endorsement of him and U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, R-Tenn., by music superstar Taylor Swift.
“One of the immediate comments I saw on one of those blogs was that she had just endorsed two of the least sexy politicians in America,” Bredesen dryly observed as some attendees laughed. “So, we’re going to have to live with that.”