NASHVILLE - Tennessee's top remaining Republican holdout to presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump says he plans to keep holding out until he speaks with the brash billionaire reality star in coming weeks.
"You're making more of it than it needs to be," Gov. Bill Haslam told reporters Friday when asked about his lack of endorsement ahead of the state GOP's annual fundraising dinner. "I look forward to having a good conversation with him, talking about some things I've expressed some concern about."
Haslam said a group of governors wants to talk to Trump about things that matter from a state's perspective.
"And we'll have a great conversation, I'm sure," he said.
It was Haslam's first public comment on Trump since the GOP front runner became the presumptive nominee after Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich dropped out earlier this month.
That happened while Haslam, who had backed U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, was on a 10-day trade mission to Asia.
At the state GOP's Statesmen's Dinner, there was scarcely any talk from the stage about the presidential race.
Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, the state Senate speaker, is among those who have embraced Trump. House Speaker Beth Harwell has said she, too, would support him.
"This is a very winnable race for our party that we need to win" in November, Haslam said Friday.
In the past, Haslam raised concerns about Trump's more controversial comments. Asked about those involving minorities, the governor said, "I do think words matter, and that's one of the conversations we will have."
But he said he and a number of other governors want Trump to flesh out for them his views on the relationship between the federal government and states on issues from health care to education.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took no position during primaries but began having conversations with Trump on America's place in the world after the former Chattanooga mayor openly praised a Trump foreign policy address.
But Corker told reporters that doesn't make him a Trump adviser.
"I'm certainly not calling over, but only responding when I'm asked," Corker told reporters.
Corker said the crowded GOP field made the situation "a very personality-based primary because it was really difficult with 17 people to distinguish yourself over the little nuances of policy."
GOP primary voters "decided on someone that had a very strong personality and was certainly opposing the status quo, anti-establishment. And that's what they wanted to see," Corker said.
But he predicted that in the next two or three months, voters are "going to see [the Trump] campaign really addressing some of the policy issues that matter to people, because this hasn't been that kind of campaign."
As for U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the two-time presidential candidate, said, "I'm going to support the nominee when we have one and focus on re-electing a Republican Senate."
U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., who became one of the first congressmen nationally to endorse Trump, said some GOP leaders are beginning to warm up to the presumptive nominee.
"The Trump campaign is going very well," DesJarlais said. "Had a big week in Washington, had some great meetings with leadership, with [House Speaker] Paul Ryan and the rest of the GOP leadership, the Senate leadership."
It's been more than a week since Cruz dropped out, DesJarlais noted, "so some healing has begun and a lot of unity has taken place, and I think things will be just great going into the convention."
Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Ryan Haynes bristled at questions as to whether Trump leading the ticket will hurt GOP candidates in other contests this fall.
"There's not going to be any kind of down-ballot effect," Haynes said. "We overwhelmingly control the Legislature. We have seven of nine congressmen. We're very comfortable going forward. And we're going to continue to win."
Haynes predicted the Democratic Party "is going to continue to suffer in this state."
His counterpart, Tennessee Democratic Party Chairwoman Mary Mancini, said "the Republican Party is crumbling right before our eyes."
She attacked the state GOP over its refusal to expand TennCare to more people, passing a "discriminatory law" allowing therapists to reject LGBT patients and having "fought hard to give tax breaks to the top wage earners while doing nothing to address the fact that Tennessee has the highest percent of low-wage workers in the nation."
"Meanwhile," Mancini added, "their party's presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, is the most dangerous in modern history."
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com, 615-255-0550